"The full name of Winkburn’s church: St John of Jerusalem. This is a rare dedication and signifies a tie with the Order of St John of Jerusalem, known as the Knights Hospitaller. Both the church and the chapel in Maplebeck (
visit link) were recorded as belonging to the Hospitallers in a 1338 return to the Grand Master, Elyan de Villanova. Even earlier, a Pipe Roll of 1184 refers to a “hospital” at Winkburn and, in 1239, monks at Rufford held and worked land at Maplebeck, with the agreement of the Hospitaller Prior of England, Terry de Nulla.
The Order of St John was created in 1079 to run the pilgrim hospital in Jerusalem, while still under Muslim control. After the city was taken in 1099 during the First Crusade it grew in importance and by the 1130s and 40s it had acquired a military role. The Norman king of Jerusalem granted the Order half a dozen castles, including the well-known Krak des Chevaliers. After the Templars were wound up in 1307, it was given all their estates and even more castles. Their need for resources was huge.
Benefactors all over Europe made donations of land and thithes. Records show that a Henry Hosatus gave Winkburn church to the Hospitallers and Adam de Tyson Winkburn village. This ownership lasted until 1540 when Henry VIII, despite his title as Protector of the Order of St John, appropriated and sold the manor to William Burnell, whose descendants still live at Winkburn Hall.
With so much land, the Hospitallers developed an efficient provincial government. Each manor was known as a commandery, usually one per shire, run from the Province HQ, the Priory at Clerkenwell, in London. Some commanderies, such as Winkburn, were known as camerae, or estates in the personal possession of a high official but held in absentia and administered by an agent (possibly Rufford Abbey in this case). The commanderies were under the control of the Prior and above him was the Grand Master.
The Grand Master was based in Jerusalem from 1099 to 1187, when Jerusalem was taken by Saladin. From there the base moved to Acre, on the Mediterranean coast, which was lost in 1291. Later HQs were in Cyprus (1291-1309), Rhodes (1309-1523) and, finally, Malta (1523-1798). In the nineteenth century, the Order was revived in England as a medical charity and an Order of Chivalry under the British Crown – The Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem. Revivals also occurred in Malta, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Hungary, France and Switzerland.
Maplebeck and Winkburn therefore have an honourable lineage, with historical links which can perhaps be imagined when contemplating the largely unchanged Norman architecture of Winkburn’s church of St John of Jerusalem."
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"A church at Winkburn is recorded in Domesday Book as part of the lands of Gilbert Tison. It was evidently once a more significant settlement than today as it returned 100s value before 1066 and in 1086 had 15 Freemen, though the value had declined to 60s.
The dedication to St John of Jerusalem is extremely unusual and refers to the ownership of the church and surrounding estate by the Knights Hospitaller; the earliest record to their presence here dates from 1184-5 when the Pipe Rolls of Henry II record ‘Winkeburn’ Hospitaliorum’ owing half a Mark (6s 8d) in tax. In a later charter it is stated that Archbishop William (probably William FitzHerbert, 1143-54) granted the Knights Hospitaller the church of Ossington with its appurtenances, and one Henry Hosatus gave the churches of Winkburn and Averham to the order; Adam Tyson also gave the town of Winkburn.
In 1338 we have a detailed account of the Winkburn estate, owned by the Knights Hospitaller. It is assumed that the Order continued to hold the estate and church until at some point the estate, or part of it, was absorbed into the holdings of Rufford Abbey which was valued as such in 1534.
Following the Reformation it became the parish church and by 1892 the living was valued below £100, one of only 16 in the diocese to be so low, and in 1901 it was described as being in a ‘sad state of decay’. Today it has been sympathetically, but minimally, restored and is once again in good order.
Winkburn comprises a nave and chancel without aisles, chapels, vestry, or a chancel arch; a south porch; and a west tower. There is evidence for a clock in the west wall of the tower, though none exists today.
The building is essentially Norman in date and style, probably originating, in its present form, from the mid-12th century. The zigzag mouldings of the belfry windows bear some resemblance to work at nearby Southwell Minster, whilst the beakhead ornament around the south doorway may be similarly dated. The side walls contain windows of the 14th – 19th centuries and the fabric is not easily datable owing to a covering of render. The south porch appears to be a rebuilding of the 18th century. The west tower is mid 12th century throughout, including a fine tower arch with zigzag moulding, though the interior belfry windows, the upper stages of the belfry, and the parapets appear to date from a restoration of 1632, as attested by a stone in the north, exterior tower wall."
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