Temple Hirst is a village in the Selby district of North Yorkshire. The preceptory of the Knights Templars at Temple Hirst was founded around 1152 and stayed in existence until 1308: the Templars were suppressed in 1311. It is most famous as the inspiration behind 'Templestowe' in Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. The site had a complex later history; over the last century when not derelict it has been a farmhouse, public house, and now a nursing home. For more details of the site, see Lee (2011).

The site of Temple Farm as described in Pevsner, has since been been divided up. The old building (in 2013) is now a Care Home. It is largely built of old bricks, with stone footings on the S side. At the W end of this front is a stone buttress patched with brick, and at the E end is a polygonal tower of brick. The only Romanesque sculptural remains are to be found in a re-set doorway on the S side.

VCH Yorkshire III, 259, says 'This preceptory [of Temple Hirst] originated in the grant of the manor of Hirst in Birkin made in 1152 by Ralph Hastings to the order, of which his brother Richard was grand master.' Henry Lacy confirmed this grant; Kellington church was given by Henry Lacy to the Templars. It states that 'a chapel must have been built at Hirst before 1185, as 40 acres in Fenwick were given prior to that date by Jordan Foliot for the support of a chaplain at Hirst'. It was suppressed in 1308.

It is possible that the foliage fans were arranged in the outlines of waterleaves.

The squat proportions, integral impost, capital and necking are late 12th-century features - compare capitals in the arcade at Drax. Similarly, the mouldings of the arches of both orders, and the size of the voussoirs, suggest a late date; compare the chapter-house facade at Fountains Abbey.