Situated in the East Kesteven district of South Lincolnshire, Temple Bruer was built by the Knights Templar close to the Roman highway after 1150. It was originally named Preceptory de la Bruere, from the French word for heath. The knights turned the surrounding heathland into productive farming land, with wool the major product. By 1308 Temple Bruer was the second richest preceptory in England, controlling several surrounding preceptories.

The property later passed from the Knights Templar to the Hospitallers, and eventually Henry VIII sold Temple Bruer to the Duke of Suffolk. By 1541 the site had already fallen into disrepair.

By 1726, remains of the Templar's round church and a nave with a tower attached to it could still be seen. But a century later only the tower (pictured) was still standing, and in 1935 the surrounding lands were broken up and sold.

Do the Bruers really come from this rather desolate and forbidding place? There is certainly evidence that people using the name de la Bruere lived here, taking their name from what had once been an important economic and spiritual centre.

In any event, Temple Bruer has given its name in recent years to the prizewinning Temple Bruer winery in the Langhorne Creek district of South Australia, established by the second-generation Australian Bruer David and his wife Barbara. And so the connection lives on.