Keele is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire, England. It is approximately three miles (5 km) west of Newcastle-under-Lyme, and is close to the village of Silverdale. Keele lies on the A53 road from Newcastle-under-Lyme to Market Drayton and Shrewsbury. The village is the location of Keele University (at ) and Keele Services (), a motorway service area on the M6. Keele is located in the Keele ward of the borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme with its name drawing from the old Anglo-Saxon Cȳ-hyll = "Cow-hill". The 2001 census indicated the parish had a population of 3,664,(increasing to 4,129 at the 2011 census) most of whom students at Keele University as one of the halls of residence, Hawthorns, now sold for land redevelopment, was located in the heart of the village. The Knights Templars & Hospitallers The village is recognised for its association with the university and its position astride the M6. But during the Middle Ages, Keele was a major route from the North-West to London for laden packhorses and caravans alike. Keele Preceptory was granted to the Knights Templar sometime between 1168 and 1169 by King Henry II. The Knights Templars, military order and later rivals Knights Hospitallers, would charge incoming traffic to pass through their lands. This would supplement rental income from farming tenants. Little remains today of the Templar's heritage and less so of the Hospitallers. Erected during the 1992 bypass between Newcastle-under Lyme and Madeley to improve circulation in the village, an iron sculpture celebrates the arrival of the former at Keele. Additionally, one University hall of residence, Holly Cross, located on the estate and shaped in a Templar Cross, commemorates their presence. The parish church is named after the patron saint of the Hospitallers, St John the Baptist, and it is believed that one of the church's stained glass panels still contains elements of surviving early medieval glass. Keele Estate & the Sneyd Family From the mid 15th Century until the 1940s, the Sneyd family owned much of the village (cottages, school, farm, Inn), dominating local life architecturally as well as socially and receiving rents from villagers and tenants. The inhabitants were principally employed in collieries and iron works, notably in Silverdale, also belonging to the Sneyds. During the Second World War the estate was requisitioned by the British government for the British Army. Various training activities were carried out