A small commandery or preceptory of the Knights Hospitallers that according to the Victoria County History was formerly a house of the Knights Templar from about 1135 to 1154 until 1312. {1} The Knights Hospitaller had a preceptory at Maltby granted by Ranulf Earl of Chester before 1153. In 1386 Maltby and Skirbeck Preceptory were united and in 1445 the property passed to the estate of the prior of England, ceasing to be owned by the Hospitallers. The suggestion made in the Monasticon and repeated in the Victoria County History that this was originally a Templar foundation is erroneous. {2} The Ordnance Survey noted that the earthwork remains around Maltby included four moats and other earthworks that it was suggested represented the remains of the religious house. Although a later field inspector visited the site in 1963 and was less convinced that the earthworks here are related to the Hospitaller house. {3}{4}