Sir Robert Hales at Cressing Temple August 2007 Review

Sir Robert Hales in the Wheat Barn at Cressing Temple

Cressing Temple was blessed and honoured with a visit from Sir Robert Hales preceptor of the site until 1381. In 1372 Robert Hales became the Grand Prior of the Knights Hospitallers of England.

Richard II appointed him Lord High Treasurer, so in 1381, he was responsible for collecting the hated poll tax. It was in this year he revisited us in guise of spirit and explained the grandeur of the site of Cressing Temple, the lives of the Hospitaller monks living there and their religious convictions.

He explained the Great Barns and the Templar's stone well, the chapel and its gardens, the hearth in the old hall house and many other points of interest. He spoke in vivid detail on the history of the Knights of the Temple of Solomon and explained their demise and arrest 700 years ago on Friday the 13th of October 1307.

Cressing Temple was handed over to the Knights Hospitaller and carried on as a working farm and preceptory.

As for him his fate was terrible. During the Peasants Revolt on the 14th of June, 1381 in the afternoon about 400 rebels led by John Starling, entered the Tower of London and capture Simon Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, Robert Hales and John Legge. They were all executed at Tower Hill, beheaded with swords.