The Templar Church of St. Michaels - Garway

Location.

     From England, St. Michaels Church is best approached via the M.5 motorway.  Leave the M.5 at junction 8 and move on to the M50, up to Ross-on-Wye. At the end of the M.50, travel a short distance on the A.40 to Bridstow and then turn on to the A.49.  In about four miles turn left on to the B.4521.  Travel along this for about eight miles, crossing the A.4137 (Whitchurch) and the A.465 (Monmouth) roads.  In the small village of Broad Oak make a right turn for the village of Garway. 

     The church is situated at the far end of the linear village, down a hill and turn left down the little road at the bottom - the church is signposted.  The church can be seen on the left and Church Farm with its Templar dovecote is just beyond it. 

      The former Templar Preceptory, once located on what is now Church Farm, were of strategic significance overlooking the Monnow valley and the Welsh border. 

History.

     In Saxon times, Garway, or Llangarewi, was in the southern part of the smallkingdom of Archerfield and there was a Saxon church there.  The land was granted by the King to St. Dyfrig in the sixth century with 108 acres for the church.  There is now no evidence of the Saxon foundation. 

     During the 1180s, The Knights Templar was granted all the land in Llangarewi by Henry II and this was confirmed to the Knights in 1199 by King John.  They used the land to provide monies for the upkeep of the Knights Templar organisation and to house aged or disabled Templars within the Preceptory.  The Templars were placed there to guard the border against incursions by the Welsh.  The Preceptory was erected to the south of the church on land now belonging to Church Farm.  Parts of the foundations of the Templar Preceptory were still visible in 1844 but they were removed and used in the construction of the farm.  Jacques de Molay, later martyred by Philip II of France, when he was Grand Master of the English Templars visited the site in 1294. 

     The Templars remained on the site until 1308 when, following the dissolution of the Order, it was handed over to the Knights of St. John the Hospitaller, who remained in control until the Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in the 1530s.  In this period the buildings at Garway were attached to the Hospitallers’ Preceptory at Dinsmore.  There was a long period of friction between the Hospitallers and the Church authorities over Garway.  The Hospitallers, as the Templars before them, claimed that they were outside Church jurisdiction and therefore exempt from Church taxes.  They therefore refused admittance to successive Bishops of Hereford.

round nave, the foundations of which were only discovered in 1927 (see photographs) and the Tower.  They were also responsible for the fine ‘Norman’ arch at the west end of the chancel and the arches leading into the south chapel.  The round nave was replaced in the late thirteenth century with the present rectangular one, probably following some subsidence in the foundations of the round nave.  The south chapel was originally built by the Templars in the thirteenth century, contemporary with the arches, but was rebuilt in the sixteenth century following the displacement of the Hospitallers.  The east wall of the chancel was also rebuilt at this time.  The windows on the north wall of the nave, including the blocked doorway and partially blocked windows all date from the thirteenth century. 

     The tower is large, being about twenty-two metres high.  It is of solid stone construction with thick walls.  It was built over eight hundred years ago when the Welsh Marches were in turmoil and would have provided an exceptionally good defensive position.  The tower was detached from the main body of the church and was joined to the church by the passageway some three hundred years ago.  Some two metres were added to the height of the tower about two hundred years ago.  At some stage during that time the tower was used as the village prison.  Considering that it was floored with eighteenth century gravestones, that was probably quite an interesting experience to those of a nervous disposition!     

St Michael's Holy Well, on the north side of the churchyard.

     Both the exterior and interior of the church contain a wealth of interesting, symbolic carvings and other features.  These are illustrated and described below.  Within the grounds of the churchyard there is a holy well or spring, now unfortunately to some extent overgrown.

Interior.

     A/  The barrel ceiling dating from the fourteenth century.  A fine timber construction with eighteen six-pointed stars painted on it - the classic ‘as above, so below’ symbol.

     B/  The font - dated from the fourteenth century and is therefore probably a Hospitaller remnant.  It is hexagonal in shape and seems to have more recent carvings on it, principally triangles pointing up and down, probably symbolic. The serpent entwined around the staff is a Hospitaller healing emblem.

     C/  The arch - definitely Norman in style and from the Templar period.  the zig-zag toothed design is eastern in style and reflects the influence that the Moors had on Templar thought.

     D/  Column detail - again beautifully carved and shows a waterleaf pattern and a probable sun disc.

     E/  The ‘green man’ - there is some dispute as to whether or not this is a green man.  However he does seem to have plantlike tendrils emerging from his mouth.  The horns (cf. Moses in Rosslyn Chapel) represent knowledge and wisdom.  the carvings on either side of the horns look like shells.

     F/  Gable end cross - reputedly seventeenth century but seems to be much older.  Mounted here on the nave wall but probably formerly on a gable end, it looks like a Templar cross with with a ‘dextra die’ (right hand of God) raised in blessing in the centre.    

     G/  Templar gravestone 1.  A former Templar coffin lid has been used as part of the chancel steps and shows the sword and chalice (cf. Rosslyn Chapel).

     H/  Templar gravestone 2 (south chapel) - here used as a window lintel and barely visible beneath the whitewash.  Again there is the sword emblem.  A third gravestone has been used as a lintel in the tower.

     I/  Piscina - an unusual shaped piscina for washing sacred dishes.  Some have described it as shamrock shaped but it seem more like the top half of a man.

     J/  Piscina detail - above the piscina, ‘graffito’ have been carved.  A grail or chalice with wings with a cross in the centre (similar to many Templar gravestones), a consecrated wafer, a fish and a serpent -significant symbols all.

     K/  the symbols of Christ’s Passion - ‘graffito’ on the west wall of the south chapel.  They include a spear, three nails, a Tau cross (as the Templars believed was used at the Crucifixion), a ladder, a sponge on a reed and a chalice. 

     The quality of the graffito may lead on to believe that they are not of Templar age as the Templars usually produced high quality carving.

Exterior.

     L/  A Templar cross or perhaps a graffiti of a Hospitaller ‘Maltese Cross’.

     M/  Agnus Dei - a good carving of a symbol used by both the Templars and the Hospitallers.  The lamb carrying a staff carrying a banner with a Templar Cross on it.

     N/  A gryphon or wyvern.  A dragon like creature with wings, could look like a dove at a quick glance.  Used occasionally as a symbol on Templar documents.

     O/The Hand of God - the ‘dextra dei’, pointing down from heaven amidst the clouds.  Of good quality and probably Templar in date.

     P/  The ‘swastika’ - a graffiti-type carving.  The swastika is reversed or pointing anti-clockwise - this is a symbol of good fortune in the East, perhaps brought back from the Crusades.

     Q/  Symbols - a T and a K combined, with an hourglass shape? A memorial?

     R/  The ‘cross pattee’ - a version of the eight pointed cross of the Templars or perhaps the Hospitallers?

     S/  The patriarchal cross with crosslets - so called because it was adopted by the patriarchs or bishops of the early church in Jerusalem.

     T/  Mitred head - supposedly the severed head of one of the Templar masters of Garway.  To be considered with ‘U’.

     U/  Skull - the symbol of death.  When taken with ‘T’ symbolises our mortality and the passage of time.

     V/  Templar nave and arch.  The original Templar nave and entrance to the nave area with blocked up window to the left.

     W/  Foundations of nave. Discovered in 1927 (see map).  One of only five such churches in the country with a round nave, an architectural feature brought from Jerusalem by the Templars.  Together with the Temple Church in London, which had to be largely rebuilt after the Second World War, this is the best example in the country.

     X/  The dovecot.  In a neighbouring farm and therefore permission is required before entry.  Probably the best example of a columbarium or dovecot in the country.  The interior is about six metres across and the walls are four feet thick.  There are 666 nesting boxes (an extremely significant number in gematria that cannot be a coincidence!) in 19 rows.  Potentially interesting carvings on the entrance cannot be deciphered.

     Y/    A ‘modern’ gravestone showing a beautiful version of the Templar cross.  There are numerous gravestones in the churchyard mainly dating from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, probably due to the limitations of space. 

© Bob Mander 2005

See also  St Michael's Church, Garway in The Temple, Issue no. 3