Sheep may not safely graze

The Templars’ estates in Oxfordshire apparently had a problem of a shortage of pasture for sheep. Thomas Danvers’ accounts for the first few months after the Templars were arrested (January to May 1308) note the sale of two hundred wethers at Bradwell ‘which were accustomed to be sent to Guiting in Gloucestershire at Hokeday because of the default of pasture’; while he sold 41 lambs at Merton ‘on account of default of pasture’.

Oxfordshire had its quirks. So far it is the only county I have found where the Templars kept mules as a major source of motive power: there were fourteen at Cowley and Horspath, eight at Merton and two at Sibford. They also kept the usual horses, affers and oxen, but so many mules was unusual. Elsewhere in England and Wales there was one mule at Dinsley in Hertfordshire and one at Balsall in Warwickshire. The manor of Sibford in Oxfordshire did not produce wheat, which was very unusual for the estates that the Templars managed directly: the only other such estates that I have identified so far were Haddiscoe (Norfolk) and Togrind (Norfolk/Suffolk border).

Most of the Oxfordshire manors kept sheep — but not the commandery at Sandford. The only sheep here was a multo domesticus — a tame wether. Appropriately for a house by the Thames, Sandford also kept swans.

(Source: The National Archives, E 358/19 rot. 26-26 dorse; E 142/13 mem. 14).