Knight's Templar Church, Dover

We've walked past this site during our Western Heights visits so many times that it is embarrassing. Especially as Ren has been wanting to visit the site for years but was unsure of its location. 

After a quick google, and a serious promise to go, we found it was not where she thought it was after all this time (she thought it was near St James' Shopping Centre, a bit closer to Dover Castle), and that we've been basically just below it a handful of times.

So one summery Saturday afternoon, we took the plunge and walked up the slight incline to view the church's footprint.

It is fenced off, which is a shame but also understandable due to the huge drop down to the stones and the lack of a safe way to get either down or up. We were shocked however, to find that there isn't an awful lot of history recorded on this site and not a huge amount is known. It's only assumed that this is a Knights Templar Church due to the similarity between this and the Temple Church in London, and the same footprint was used, only much smaller, but no Templar records confirm that there was ever a Dover Church.

It is thought that this may have been simply a roadside shrine to the Templars, and the fact it is listed as a Medieval Church, we'd assume it was built somewhere within this period. However, we dont know how long it has been a ruin, let alone when it was constructed.

If it was a Templar church, it is possible that the site was used before the order established their Norman church in Temple Ewell with the Church of St Peter & Paul in 1170, but there is no evidence to support this, just speculation. Matthew Paris (Matthew of Paris), the Benedictine Monk and Chronicler, said that the Dover Templar Church was the site where King John submitted to Pandulph, so it was/is widely assumed that this was the site in question, however it is more than likely that this event was actually in Temple Ewell. 

The church was discovered, likely in its ruinous state, in 1806 when the Western Heights fortifications nearby were being built. St Martin's Battery runs almost adjacent to the site once you've walked the small hill in between, and yet considering the historical importance of both sites, the footprint of the church lays neglected, barely signed, and pretty much forgotten a 3 minute walk away. Saying that, it seems as though a lot of people do not respect the Battery either as it is massively vandalised and down to a kind group of volunteers to maintain. Sadly, the church doesn't seem to have the same support from their guardians... the fence would do with renewing, the sign has been destroyed, and the litter thrown in is sickening. But it doesn't generate any money so there's why there is no upkeep!

We did enjoy this little visit but we'd recommend lumping it in with exploration of Western Heights as it is genuinely a 5 minutes top visit to the church as you can only view it from the roadside. There's sadly no point going out of your way to visit. But we'd come back again when we are next visiting that way, it's an easy enough walk and it would be amazing to see the stone footprint in the autumn time with the fallen leaves and the dark colours. We look forward to that!

Is it haunted? More than likely, the whole of Western Heights is reported to be haunted by a symphony of ghosts there are almost too many to chronicle. However, as there isn't much known about this particular site, who knows what grisly history it beholds? There's bound to be a remnant of the past haunting the site somewhere, it was likely even a peaceful site for the various soldiers that made use of the fortifications down the road! It certainly feels haunted, the fact it exudes loneliness does nothing to help this of course. We wouldn't like to be here in the dark, that's for sure!

Haunted: 5/10

Worth the visit: 6/10

Giftshop: n/a

Ghost count: 0

Dog friendly: Yes

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