Just recently i was having an online debate about whether the Knights Templar's are still revered in the UK given they existed hundreds of years ago. Well, i said, there's a huge Knights Templar logo 15 minutes from my house. It was the logo of my secondary school and other schools in the area so i know it well. In fact the logo is all around the borough and soon I'll venture out with my camera and snap as many as i can...
I found the following online about Temple Mills (Olympic 2012 site)...
An industrial, commercial and railway area beside the River Lea in west Leyton. A crossing point on the river brought early human activity and evidence has been found of a Roman camp nearby. In 1185 William of Hastings, steward to Henry II, granted land here to the Knights Templar, who later built wooden watermills. After the dissolution of the order in the 14th century their property passed through a variety of hands (including the Crown’s) and milling and related agricultural industries continued to grow. A White Hart tavern stood at Temple Mills from the early 18th century.
In the latter part of the 19th century the mills were demolished and the Great Eastern wagon works were moved northwards from Stratford, with marshalling yards spreading inexorably. The works were modernized in 1958 as part of a programme that made them the largest in Britain. British Rail later added a Freightliner terminal. In 1991 the Corporation of London relocated Spitalfields market to a site north of Ruckholt Road and the A12 was extended across Temple Mills later in that decade. Until recently, the area’s other principal occupant was the Lee Valley sports centre. Elsewhere there is derelict wasteland, recolonized by grasses, bracken, bramble, thistle and fleabane.
