Templecombe

Templecombe is a village in Somerset, England, situated on the A357 road five miles south of Wincanton, twelve miles east of Yeovil, and 30 miles west of Salisbury. The village has a population of 1,560. Along with the hamlet of Combe Throop it forms the parish of Abbas and Templecombe.HistoryPrior to the Norman Conquest Combe was held by Leofwine Godwinson.One part of the village was known as Abbas Combe which was recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086–7 as Cumbe, when it was held by the church of St Edward, Shaftesbury.The other manor within the parish was held by Earl Leofwine but after the Norman Conquest was given to Bishop Odo of Bayeux. It was his descendant Serlo FitzOdo who granted it to the Knights Templar.The parish was part of the hundred of Horethorne.Templecombe derives its name from Combe Templariorum, after the Knights Templar who established Templecombe Preceptory in the village in 1185. After they were suppressed in 1312 it was granted to the Knights of St John of Jerusalem who held it until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, after which it was acquired by Richard Duke (d.1572) of Otterton, Devon. An attempt to discover 'the village of the templars' was made by the Time Team television series, in a programme first shown in 1996. Late in the investigation, an old tithe map revealed the location of the Templar site, and an old stone boundary wall was found to be still standing seven feet high.