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Torphichen Preceptory was the Scottish headquarters of the Order of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem (also known as the Knights Hospitaller). The order, formally recognised by the papacy in 1113, sheltered the sick and poor visiting the Holy Land (Jerusalem fell to the Crusaders in 1099) and gave military protection to pilgrims.
The Hospitallers' vast estates in the West were administered regionally by priors. Below them were preceptors (hence ‘preceptory'). The priory for the whole of the British Isles was at Clerkenwell in London. The preceptor for Scotland was based at Torphichen, and the preceptory was founded by David I (1124–53).  Sir William Wallace visited the preceptory in late March 1298.
The order was suppressed in 1554. But in 1881 Queen Victoria re-established it in England as the Most Venerable Order of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem. Its remit is to undertake charitable works, the best-known example of which is the St John's Ambulance Association. In Scotland George VI revived the order in 1947, again for charitable purposes.
Only a precious fragment of the order's Scottish house survives. The church's crossing tower and flanking transepts still stand complete and roofed. The nave (to the west) and choir (to the east) survive only as low footings. (The nave was rebuilt in 1756 as the parish church of Torphichen.)
Of the cloister to the north of the church, only foundations remain. Another surviving feature is an arrangement of five sanctuary stones, defining the preceptory's area of sanctuary. One stands to the south of the parish church, and four more in fields to the north, west, south and east.
The church has some fine architecture. Work of the late 1100s survives in the chancel arch (now blocked up). Much of the rest dates from the 1400s, including both transepts. These were built at the direction of Sir Andrew Meldrum, the preceptor, in the 1430s. An inscription recording this survives in the north transept.
Another interesting detail is scratched onto a wall in the south transept – a working diagram of the complicated ribbed vault, produced by the master-mason charged with building it. The painted wall decoration high up in the crossing and south transept is another rare survival.
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