Templar Knights and Thompsons Bottom - Day Walk

This route starts off almost immediately with an ascent to the top of Lincoln Edge, where there are fine and extensive views.  Then the route takes us along some quiet Lincolnshire lanes to the site of Temple Bruer, a Preceptory of the Knights Templar, it is one of the few Knights Templar sites left in England where any ruins remain standing, here one of two original towers remain for us to see on our walk.   

Afterwards our route takes us across fields passing by Thompsons Bottom on route to the pretty village of Wellingore.  We'll visit two attractive villages - Wellingore and Welbourn - both lie along a 3 mile (4.8km) stretch of the Limestone Ridge of Lincoln Edge or Cliff.  The route descends from the ridge at Wellingore, continues across fields at its foot and through Welbourn.

Gay History and Legend

One of the most fascinating sections in “Homosexuality and Civilization” deals with the Knights Templar. When this order lost its control over the holy city of Jerusalem during the Crusades, it also lost its prestige. King Philip IV of France (“Philip the Fair”), in need of money for his wars, declared the Templars (with little or no evidence) to be sodomites, amongst other things.

However there's likely some truth in the accusation because if you were gay in the Middle Ages, then joining a brotherhood of some description was a good way to avoid that familiar and annoying question at family gatherings:

“When are you going to get married?”

Monastic orders allowed you to be in close proximity to other men, even with shared accommodation. And you were expected to deny female flesh. It just gets better and better. Plus there was a career path and lots of dressing up.

If you were more butch – then why not join the Templars?  Their emblem is actually two Knights riding a single horse, how romantic! 

Following the suppression of the order of Knights Templar in France, Edward II followed in 1308 by sending John de Cormel, the sheriff of Lincolnshire, with 12 knights and their forces to arrest the Templars at Temple Bruer. These included William de More, the Preceptor and Grand Master of the order in England. For a time they were held in the Clasketgate in Lincoln before being sent to the Tower of London.

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