Barrow Camera

Barrow Camera was a small administrative building used by the Knights Hospitaller in the hamlet of Arleston, within the parish of Barrow upon Trent in Derbyshire. It served as a short-stay residence for officials and their attendants managing the order’s estates. Historians once confused it with a similarly named place in Cheshire, but records confirm its Derbyshire location. The building stood on land donated in the 12th century by Robert de Bakepuze to the Knights Hospitaller’s Yeaveley Preceptory. Later, its income and staff were formally recorded, showing its growing importance to the order.

By the 15th century, Barrow Camera had become closely linked with Yeaveley Preceptory, even sharing its name in documents. Its income reached £30 by 1338, though some scholars doubt monks lived there regularly. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 16th century, the property was seized and given to Charles Blount, 5th Baron Mountjoy. The last commander of both sites later became Lieutenant-Turcopolier of Malta, reflecting the order’s wider role.

The Camera’s remains survive beneath Arleston House, a farmhouse built in the 16th or 17th century. A substantial stone basement from the 14th century still exists, measuring 75 ft by 21 ft. This basement supported a large hall with buttresses, showing the building’s original size. Today, the site is part of a Grade II listed farmhouse, blending medieval ruins with later architecture. The surrounding hamlet of Arleston and the village of Barrow upon Trent offer quiet countryside views.