An environment agency

The coast near Sutton in Essex, where the Templars’ seawall needed repair in 1308. Photo: N2 Productions

Readers of my book The Knights Templar on Trial may remember that the Templars had been responsible for maintaining the seawall near their manor of Sutton in Essex (pp. 85-6). In 1308 the king’s officials who were now in charge at Sutton found that the seawall was in constant need of repair. In the first month (9 Jan to 12 Feb 1308) the sheriff had to spend 26 shillings to repair and improve the seawall to prevent damage from flooding (TNA E 358/19 rot. 52). In the next few months, until the end of September, the sheriff spent another 103 shillings on the seawalls; and in November King Edward II sent further instructions to repair the seawall because of the imminent danger of flooding.

As the climate became colder and wetter in the early fourteenth century, the danger of flooding increased. It was eminently sensible for the seawall to be in the Templars’ care, as they had the liquid capital to invest in its repair. But when the order was abolished there was no obvious institution to take over this responsibility. Similar problems must have occurred in England and Wales after the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s.