Knights Hospitallers' Gateway, Quenington

The Knights Hospitallers' Gateway stands on Church Road in Quenington, a village on the River Coln in our Coln valley guide, beside St Swithin's Church. It is the fourteenth-century gatehouse of the preceptory, a kind of manor house and religious community, that the crusading order founded here in about 1193. It is listed Grade I and is seen from the road.

History

The gatehouse is almost all that stands of the Knights Hospitallers' house at Quenington. The order of St John was given the manor in the twelfth century and, in about 1193, founded a preceptory just south-west of the church to run its estates in the area, as our story on Templars and Hospitallers in the Cotswolds tells.

Life at the preceptory

The house was a place of some standing. Edward I stayed there often between 1276 and 1290, and a survey of 1338 records a preceptor, two other knights, a chaplain, three clerks and servants living there. The Hospitallers held Quenington until 1540, when the order's English houses were suppressed.

The building

Historic England's listing dates the square gatehouse to the fourteenth century. It was partly rebuilt in the early sixteenth century and extended to the north-west with a two-storey wing. It is built of rubble stone under a stone slate roof. The preceptory's round dovecote also survives in the grounds and is listed Grade I as well. It is reputed to be the one mentioned in 1338, though some think it seventeenth century.

What to look for

From the street you see the gatehouse's street front. Look for:

• A pointed doorway for people on foot, under a pointed hoodmould
• Beside it, a large flat carriage arch with double doors of vertical battens
• Above, a single light with plank shutters and, to its left, a small cusped niche holding a headless statuette
• A cross on the saddlestone at the gable end

The two upper rooms are said to have roof trusses carved with quatrefoils, but the inside was not seen when the building was listed and is not open. A few steps away is St Swithin's, the church the Hospitallers took over, with its carved Norman doorways.

Visiting

The gatehouse belongs to a private house, Knights Gate, so see it from Church Road and do not go through the gates. The dovecote is in the private grounds and cannot be seen up close. St Swithin's, next door, is the place to stop and look around.

Getting there

Quenington is about 2 miles north of Fairford. By car, park with care on the road in the village; the lanes are narrow. On foot, Coln St Aldwyns and Bibury starts in Coln St Aldwyns, across the river just over a kilometre away, so you can add the gatehouse to the start or end of that walk.

Nearby

St Swithin's Church is next door, and the Keepers Arms is a few minutes' walk away in the village. Across the river in Coln St Aldwyns are St John the Baptist's Church, the New Inn and Coln Community Stores. Downstream, St Mary's, Fairford is famous for its medieval glass. Our guide to the Coln valley covers the villages.