(Continued)
The next historical record comes in the form of the Domesday book compiled for William the Conqueror in 1086. The villages were owned separately: Great Thurlow was in the possession of Edred, a freewoman, and Little Thurlow was in the possession of Richard, son of the Earl of Gislebert. The entry in Domesday refers to a carucate of land (approximately 120 acres or that which could be ploughed with a team of eight oxen in a year), a ploughteam, an acre of meadow and a church with 29 acres. At that time too there were adjoining manors at Wadgells and Temple End. This is the first reference to Temple End, which has long been assumed to be associated with the Knights Templar. However, the Order of the Knights Templar was founded in 1118, when the knights travelled all over Europe as part of the Crusades, but the order was officially suppressed by the Pope in 1312. The Domesday reference to Temple End pre-dates this order by 32 years, so one wonders if there was another temple of a different age in Temple End? Nevertheless, the manor of Temple End owned by Rogers Le Bretun and Le Breteuil (who may have been one and the same), was later awarded to the Knights Templar, presumably to help fund their activity. Another archaeological record from the Cambridge Antiquarian Society in 1891 refers to remnants of buildings being uncovered at Temple End in the Ten Acre field, but no further excavations took place. The tithe map shows a Temple Field although this is a different field from the Ten Acre field. There is strong evidence too, from the graffiti in Great Thurlow church, that the chapel there may have been used for ceremonial purposes for the order of knighthood. Indeed, there are three brasses of knights and their families that date from the period and a large number of shields are inscribed in the arch of the Lady Chapel.