Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The foundations of a possible Knights Templar church on the Western Heights, Dover. The port of Dover, the main departure point for pilgrimages to the Holy Land, would have been an obvious place for the Templar order to have had a property, but they are believed to have left the town before 1185 and moved to Temple Ewell. The 12th century church has a circular nave, 10 metres in diameter, and an oblong chancel. This unusual form mirrors that of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, and led to the suggestions that it was constructed by the Knights Templar. Alternatively the building may have been a wayside shrine on the Dover to Folkestone road. It was built of flint rubble with ashlar facing. The buried foundations were discovered in 1854 during the construction of the Western Heights military defences. The site is in the care of English Heritage.

Monument Types

• CHURCH (CHURCH, Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Full description

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[TR 31284071] Church of the Knights Templars [GT] (rems of) (1) A house of Knights Templars was removed from Dover before 1185. The site of the round church on Western Heights was excavated in 1854 and the foundations can still be seen. Scheduled. (2-6) The excavated remains of this church, comprising a circular nave with an oblong chancel, are approximately 2.0m below present ground level and constructed of flint rubble with an outer facing of ashlar. The stone facing is no more than 0.4m above the ground, but the rubble core averages 0.7m in height, except at the W end where a gap denotes a doorway. The remains are kept in a fair state of preservation. (Published 1:1250 survey correct). (See GP's, AO/64/121/-2). (7) (TR 31284071) Church of the Knights Templars, Dover. The Templar church stood on the Western Heights, where its foundationscan be seen. It seems to have been an early settlement of the Templars which may have moved before 1185 to Temple Ewell which later passed to Swingfield; in 1338 Swingfield paid dues to Dover Castle. (8) Additional Bibliography - not consulted. (9) A watching brief 70m away revealed only a pit. (10).

From the National Heritage List for England:

In the 12th century a chapel was built on the southern edge of the Heights, 500m south west of the lighthouse. The chapel, of which the flint and mortar core of the foundations and a small area of stone facing survive, had a circular nave 10.6m in diameter and a rectangular chancel 7.6m in length and 4.3m wide. Its unusual form, which mirrors that of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, has led to suggestions that it was constructed by the Knights Templars, a group of whom are believed to have left Dover before 1185. Western Heights has been extensively modified by landscaping associated with its later military usage but the lighthouse, chapel and a fragmentary series of field terraces visible immediately beyond the scarp at the foot of the northern defences demonstrate that it was occupied from much earlier times.(12)

During a Watching Briefs carried out in 2007-8 and 2014, during the water pipe and cable trenching, it was observed that the original ground level was raised by 1m and that the medieval chapel was not originally set into a terrace. This being the result of 19th century landscaping. (13-14)

Other buildings certainly existed in the proximity of the church. Lambarde notes the house of the Templars which is depicted in a near contemporary view of 1540. There may have also have been an associated cemetery; in the early 1920's burials were found during construction works in the interior of a gunshed. (15)

Historic England Archive Material (16)

<1> OS 25" 1957 (OS Card Reference). SKE48272.

<2> Md Rel Houses Eng and Wales 1953 235 (Knowles and Hadcock) (OS Card Reference). SKE46689.

<3> Arch Cant 11 1877 45-6 (plan) (OS Card Reference). SKE34650.

<4> Arch J 13 1856 85 (W.Clayton) (OS Card Reference). SKE36575.

<5> Arch J 86 1930 40 (REM Wheeler) (OS Card Reference). SKE36744.

<6> AM Eng and Wales 1961 59 (OS Card Reference). SKE33015.

<7> F1 ASP 22-MAY-64 (OS Card Reference). SKE42239.

<8> Md Rel Houses Eng and Wales 1971 293 (D Knowles and R N Hadcock) (OS Card Reference). SKE46694.

<9> Bygone Kent 1892 85 (R Stead) (OS Card Reference). SKE38447.

<10> Field report for monument TR 34 SW 31 - May, 1964 (Bibliographic reference). SKE5979.

<11> CAT Annual Report, 1994-5. (OS Card Reference). SKE38716.

<11> Not applicable, SMR Kent uncatalogued index entry, CAT annual report, 1994-5. (Miscellaneous Material). SKE6440.

<12> Historic England, National Heritage List for England (Index). SKE29372.

<13> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2014, Report on an archaeological watching brief Dover Western Heights Scheduled Ancient Monument (No. 1020298) (Unpublished document). SKE31575.

<14> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 2008, Dover Western Heights, Water Upgrade, 2007-8, Watching-brief Report (Unpublished document). SKE16844.

<15> Canterbury Archaeological Trust, 1990, Dover Western Heights: Grand Shaft Barracks: An Interim Archaeological Assessment Preparatory to Evaluation (Unpublished document). SKE6727.

<16> Historic England, Archive material associated with Knights Templar Church, Dover, Scheduled Monument (Archive). SKE55365.

Sources and further reading