Enormous wooden barns just off the Witham to Braintree form one of the most visible reminders of a medieval order of warrior monks.

The Knights Templar (or the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon) was founded in 1119 for the protection of Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land. Not only did they provide much-feared shock-troops for the Crusades, they also set up an enormous network of houses and fortifications across Europe and the Holy Land, dedicated to generating revenue to support their cause. It has been described as the world's first multinational corporation.

Cressing Temple was part of this enterprise. King Stephen's wife Matilda granted the manor of Cressing to the Knights Templar in 1136. It became the largest Templar estate in Essex, comprising over 1400 acres led by a Preceptor and several knights or sergeants. There were numerous household servants and 160 tenant farmers.

The complex included a bakehouse, brewery, granary, smithy, dairy, watermill and windmill, as well as a mansion house and gardens.

The order was suppressed in the reign of Edward II, and the manor handed over to the Knights Hospitaller, another Catholic military order. Henry VIII finally dissolved the religious order at Cressing in 1540, as part of his dissolution of the monasteries. It passed into private hands, and over subsequent centuries both eh original mansion and a replacement disappeared, but the barns remain.

The Barley Barn, built around 1225, is the oldest standing timber-framed barn in the world. The Wheat Barn was built around 1280, and The Granary about 1575. The latter is the largest granary in Essex. It was later converted to a court room, and is also known as "The Old Court Room".

Another historic feature is the Walled Garden, built in the 16th Century as a pleasure garden for the then Great House on the site. It became a kitchen garden, but has now been restored to portray a typical Tudor manor house garden.

Alongside castles in Israel, Syria, France, Spain and Portugal, Cressing Temple is listed among the top ten remaining Templar sites in the world. Sadly, it has not been able to perform its current role as a popular venue for weddings and cultural events for most of the last twelve months, but all that will hopefully soon change, and visitors will be able once more to appreciate the grandeur of this remarkable place.