Upper Windrush Local History Society
    North Cotswolds

Temple Guiting & Kineton

"Guyting - Temple A.D. 814 Gythinge. D. Getinge. Guytinge. P.C. 1221 Guttings. Guthynge (1275-6). Le Gouting (1294). Getynges. Gittinges. This is a stream-name for the head water of the Windrush. The root was probably British, and was not related to A.S. Gyte : flood. Geotan: to flow: to pour. M.E. gtite.
Became appropriated to the Order of the Temple in the 12th cent.
The terminal inge, pl : inges, ( for incg) was an ending for stream-names, as in Pilning ; Twyning. Cf. E.H.R. Oct. 191 1, p. 826, by H. Bradley, LL.D." - Gloucestershire - Place Names, Baddeley

The Knights Templar owned the lands north of Castlett Brook which included Kineton, they were suppressed in 1312. Edward II allocated the lands and rights to the Hospitallers.

 

"KYNETON, in 1350 belonged to the families of Cook, and Collett, but ia now divided into several small freeholds : one of the large common fields is appropriated to this hamlet.
Three freeholders voted in 1776.
Population, 191-428-301. Houses inhabited, 59.
The benefice is a stipendiary curacy of the certiied value of 20l.5s which is paid by the chapter of Christchurch, who are the impropriators and patrons. Francis Price, A. B. incumbent. The late Charles Hayward, Esq. was lessee under the chapter of Christ church. The church, dedicated to St. Mary, consists of a nave, and embatteled tower at the west end. The chancel is in a stile of building prior to the church. Dr. Talbot, who was incumbent in 1745, at the expence of 1000l. highly decorated the inside, with the modern flat roof and cornices." - History of the County of Gloucestershire 1803

Extract from "Highways and Byways in Oxford and the Cotswolds" - H A Evans

Temple Guiting
With Oxford, Temple Guiting is linked by a double bond ; the manor was purchased in 1517 by Bishop Foxe of Winchester, and given to his recent foundation, while at the dissolution of the Hospitallers their estates, together wth the rectory and the advowson of the living, were granted by Henry VIII. to Christ Church. The society of Corpus Christi are still lords of the manor and owners of most of the parish, including the deserted mansion. It is sad to see this house standing empty, and its gardens overgrown : what a home of recreation and research might it make for a celibate President and Fellows in the long vacation ! Thus Temple Guiting would once more boast its Templars—though a fellowship of students instead of soldiers, while for the rest, doth not Rudder pronounce the place to be fine country for hunting, abounding in game and enjoying a very healthy air? Oxford men may also like to know that this house once had the distinction of containing the famous Pusey horn. In the eighteenth century the college tenants were a family named Allen, and one of the last of these, Mrs. Jane Allen, was a descendant of the Puseys. The Allens were succeeded as lessees by the Talbots, a family whose connection with the village began about 1740 and lasted till about twenty years ago. About this time Dr. George Talbot, a son of Lord Chancellor Talbot, of Great Barrington, was appointed to the incumbency, a man who left his mark on the place in more senses than one. His virtues, which include the refusal of a bishopric, are recorded on the tablet erected to his memory in the church. These may have made him the idol of his flock, but for posterity the church itself is his most eloquent memorial. He spent a thousand pounds in " beautifying " it according to the taste of his day, and it remains an astonishing example of the enormities which the taste of the day was capable of. From contemporaries the work met with nothing but praise : " this church," says Rudder, " has been beautified in a more elegant manner than is often seen in village churches ; " " Dr. Talbot,"Writes Ralph Bigland about the same time, "in 1745 entirely remodelled the inside in a high style of modern decoration with a flat roof and surrounding cornices." This is, it is true, more guarded language, as befitted an eminent antiquary and Garter King-at-Arms ; the " high style of modern decoration " was probably not altogether to his taste. The best that can be said for it is that the work is solid, practical, and appallingly heavy, and perhaps had better remain unaltered as a historical curiosity ; even the tower has been loaded with four stout square, squat pinnacles, which have managed to rob it of any grace or dignity it may once have had.