11 & 12) Site of Knights Templar and St Giles Chapel
11) Site of the Knights Templar Chapel This area was given over to the Jewish community in the late 12C. It may have been the site of a synagogue: until the end of 1177 the body of any Jew who died outside London had to be returned to the capital for burial. The gift of land would have allowed Jewish burials here. However, following the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290, the land passed to the Friars Grisely (Greyfriars) and then to the Knights Templars or Hospitalers at Dinmore Manor. In 1392 King Richard II gave the land to the city. The 1610 John Speed map shows a round Templar church at this staggered cross roads of St Owen Street, Ledbury Road, St James Road and Eign Road. The church was raised in the same style as the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem with a rounded chapel. It was rebuilt in a rectangular shape in 1682. In 1927 the road junction was redeveloped and the Chapel taken down and relocated to its present site further up St. Owen Street towards the city. It was during the move that the archaeological traces of the old Templar church were revealed, beneath the Chapel’s foundations. |
12) St Giles Chapel
Alongside the St Giles Chapel was the St Giles hospital (St Giles was associated with the care of lepers) and the Williams Hospital, built in 1601, rebuilt in 1678 and 1893.
The St Giles Hospital Almshouses were rebuilt in 1770. The newer houses were constructed and erected on the present site but with fixtures and fittings that date back to the Jacobean period. A tympanum, thought to be from the original Templar Church and executed in the late 1100s Romanesque style which can be seen on other Herefordshire churches such as Kilpeck, Shobdon and Canon Frome, was also preserved and although much eroded, placed on the wall close to the Chapel. The iron railings and gates are late 18C or early 19C and were rescued from the Trinity Almshouses located in Maylord Street when that area was redeveloped in the 1980s.
Alongside the St Giles Chapel was the St Giles hospital (St Giles was associated with the care of lepers) and the Williams Hospital, built in 1601, rebuilt in 1678 and 1893.
The St Giles Hospital Almshouses were rebuilt in 1770. The newer houses were constructed and erected on the present site but with fixtures and fittings that date back to the Jacobean period. A tympanum, thought to be from the original Templar Church and executed in the late 1100s Romanesque style which can be seen on other Herefordshire churches such as Kilpeck, Shobdon and Canon Frome, was also preserved and although much eroded, placed on the wall close to the Chapel. The iron railings and gates are late 18C or early 19C and were rescued from the Trinity Almshouses located in Maylord Street when that area was redeveloped in the 1980s.