The Knights Templar were a Western Christian military order, officially endorsed by the Catholic Church in 1129. Amongst their duties being the protection of pilgrims on their journeys to the Holy Land.
In their distinctive white mantles with a red cross they were regarded as one of the most skilled fighting units of the crusades. The order contained many non combative members who ran a large economic structure throughout Christendom – their innovative financial techniques being a forerunner to the modern banking system.
It is thought that the Knights Templar had a preceptory in Bottesford.
The preceptory would have been a community of knights who lived on one of the orders estates and in its buildings.
The present day Manor house is thought to have been the gate house to the preceptory. A small spring behind the Bottesford Manor house is known as Templars Bath. This is now a small arrangement of stones going down into the ground and may have been used by Templar workers or travellers as a dipping bath or health giving spring.
The rumours of the healing properties of the spring were probably due to a Templar hospital standing close to or near by to this site.
The only distinctive Templar artefact found was an ancient gravestone with a large cross upon it. Іt wаs covering а body buried іn а grave thаt had been placed at the angle formed by the north wall of the chancel and the east wall of the north transept, though this description does not indicate а normal Templar round church.
In 1983 an inadequate dig of the area found little and the area was back filled.
Templar seal – Speculation as to the meaning of two knights on one horse are many, however, it is often said that it indicates their vow to poverty or maybe never deserting a fellow knight in battle.