Over the 193 years of their existence the Templars played a leading role in the struggle to claim and to hold the Holy Land for Christendom. The cause was ultimately lost with the fall of Acre in 1291. The Templars were not merely a product of their time, they also had a profound formative effect upon it. Within the ranks of the Templars were leading diplomats, financiers and royal advisors who were influential in the international politics of the period. This much is widely known. Far less thoroughly researched is how the Templars farmed their estates in the English shires, such as Lincolnshire, and the fate of their lands after the dissolution of the Order in 1312.

The distribution of the Templar lands in 1185 was indeed topographically influenced, but no more so than the general settlement pattern of the period. Within those parameters, the overriding influence was that of the benefactors, both in the nature and size of their benefactions. Initially, most donations were of small parcels of land. Gradually, through the expedient of purchase and exchange, estates were consolidated. In the twelfth century monastic patronage was at its height, but benefactions were subject to fashion and, indeed, competition. Gifts to the Templars depended upon the popularity and success of their cause. In Lincolnshire, the Hospitallers were not able to attract the same degree of patronage as the Templars due to their lesser emphasis on military action.

On each estate a preceptory emerged both as the chief manor and the administrative centre. The preceptories were Willoughton, in Lindsey, and Temple Bruer, Eagle, Aslackby and South Witham in Kesteven. Each preceptory in its developed form included a range of both agricultural and domestic buildings, a church or chapel, a mill and fishponds. The farm buildings included a full range of byres, stables, pigsties, sheepcotes and barns. In addition there was a smithy and a carpenter's workshop. The domestic range included a hall, kitchen, larder, dairy, bakehouse and brewhouse. A smaller preceptory may not have had an individual building for each function. Notably there is neither archaeological nor documentary evidence to suggest the existence of dormitories to accommodate the famuli.