Abbas & Templecombe Circular Walk

''The modern parish of Abbas and Templecombe was formerly two separate estates and villages.  The more northerly one was held from Saxon times by Shaftesbury Abbey and thus known as Abbascombe.  The other manor was owned by Earl Leofwine, brother of King Harold who died at Hastings, but after 1066 was given to William the Conqueror's half-brother, Bishop Odo of Bayeux.  His descendent, Serlo FitzOdo, granted it in 1185 to the Knight's Templar who established a preceptory here.  This would have been a regional centre for their Order, admitting new members and training them for the Crusades.  Originally known as Combe ('valley') it became Templecombe during this period ...'