Westerdale

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A view of Westerdale showing the village and part of the Dale.

Westerdale is a village in North Yorkshire.

[edit] Knights Templar in Westerdale

Agricultural land and a hall, situated in the Westerdale area, were given to the Order of Knights Templar at an early period in the twelfth century. The property was donated by Guido de Bovingcourt who owned the land, together with other holdings in nearby Baysdale (a.k.a. Basedale/Handale/ Grendale). Bovincourt was a supporter of the Cistercians and donated a number of other lands in the area to them including Battersby, Stokesley, Newby and Baysdale itself. At Baysdale he provided a home for a small congregation of Cistercian nuns who lived in a small abbey there, supported by mining and smelting rights near Westerdale village.

The remains of the fortifications of the hall given to the Templars by Bovincourt was situated to the north of the present day Westerdale Hall (formerly a Youth Hostel) and was excavated by the warden's son, Paul Wheater, in 1960. He found evidence of a main chamber together with a kitchen, a brewery, animal quarters and a chapel.

In the book The Story of Danby by the late Dr Bob Robinson (1991), we are told that the Templars of Temple Newsam, Leeds, appointed the then prominent Westerdale Preceptory in 1119, to be the head of the North Yorkshire Templars.

The Preceptory prospered for around two hundred years until 1309 when the Templars were suppressed. William de la Fenne was Westerdale's last Preceptor and it is likely that with their impending suppression, he encouraged his Templars to turn much of their valuable goods into cash. A listing of their removable possessions is surprisingly small, particularly in the light of us being told that Westerdale had been declared the 'head Preceptory of North Yorkshire'. The granary contained only 4 bushels (100 kg) of rye.

The revenue from the Preceptory's extensive holdings were handed over to the Knights Hospitallers and included:

1000 acres (4 km²) of wild moorland,
60 acres (240,000 m²) of parkland,
60 acres (240,000 m²) of oats,
40 acres (160,000 m²) of grazing meadow,
2 acres (8,000 m²) of rye
the granary at Grange Farm.

Livestock handed over included:

16 oxen,
14 cows,
a single bull,
13 geese,
3 colts,
5 affers (heiffers).

Property belonging to the Chapel were listed as

2 vestments,
a Chalice,
a Missal,
a psalter,
an ant (probably antiphon),
a thurible,
2 phials,
a chest.

Also listed as part of the chapel holdings were a

plaustrum (wagon),
3 ploughs and accessories,
6 harrows,
2 ladders,
a vang (heavy rope),
2 manure forks.

Other property in the list is very insubstantial in nature and covers minor items such as candles, jars, tables etc.

As to the boundaries of the Templar lands at Westerdale, there is little evidence of their limits. A number of ancient crosses and stones stand on the moorland around this area and no doubt some of them could easily be markers for Templar boundaries. The Reverend George Young in his History of Whitby & Streonshalch Abbey (1817) says:

many [stone crosses and markers] were set up to prevent disputes over territory and serve as landmarks......this plan was especially adopted by the Knights Templars and Hospitallers......