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Temple NewsamTuesday 19th September 2000, 2/2, West Yorkshire |
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TEMPLE NEWSAM HOUSE, visible on the skyline from the new A1/M1 link road, stands in a park that was re-designed by Capability Brown in the 1780s. There are small lakes, plantations, a mock temple and sphinx gates, but much of Brown's work was lost when a section of the park was opencasted for coal.
The Templars, a mysterious order of monkish crusader knights, were here between 1155 and 1310. They built a moated Preceptory and farmed 1,000 sheep. The Order became so rich and powerful that it threatened the feudal system. The king had the Order disbanded and seized Templar lands.
The house dates from Tudor times. Henry Stewart, Lord Darnley, (1545-67) was born and brought up here. In 1564, aged eighteen, he set out to Edinburgh and became involved in the intrigues of Scottish politics. At first things went well. In the following year he married his cousin Mary Queen of Scots but, eighteen months later, he had made a lot of enemies. Kirk o' Field, the house he was staying at while convalescing from a bout of smallpox, was blown up. He managed to escape into the garden but there he was throttled to death. His infant son was to become James I.The stone head of the Templar, which was removed from the porch at Temple Newsam c. 1890 was probably carved by Thomas Ventris of York in about 1630, during the reign of Darnley's grandson, Charles I.
Richard Bell,
wildlife illustrator
E-mail; 'richard@willowisland.co.uk'
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