Lytham Priory was an English

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...

Lytham Lytham St Annes () is a seaside town in the Borough of Fylde in Lancashire, England. It is on the Fylde coast, directly south of Blackpool on the Ribble Estuary. The population at the 2011 census was 42,954. The town is almost contiguous with ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

. It was founded between 1189 and 1194 by Richard Fitz Roger as a cell of Durham Priory. It was dedicated to Saint

Cuthbert Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ( – 20 March 687) was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Nort ...

and lasted until Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in 1530s. In the 18th century, a manor house,

Lytham Hall Lytham Hall is an 18th-century Georgian country house in Lytham, Lancashire, from the centre of the town, in of wooded parkland. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, the only one ...

, was built on the site of the priory.

History

Lytham, a settlement recorded in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manus ...

'' of 1086 as ''Lidun'', is situated on

the Fylde The Fylde () is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills ...

coast, at the mouth of the River Ribble. By the 12th century, there was already a church at Lytham, dedicated to Saint

. Between 1189 and 1194, Richard Fitz Roger of

Woodplumpton Woodplumpton is a village and civil parish in the City of Preston, Lancashire, England, located north of Preston. Geography It is part of the Fylde, a flat area of land between the Forest of Bowland and the Lancashire coast. Community The vi ...

gave the church and his land at Lytham to the

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

s of Durham Priory for the foundation of a

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

cell. Richard already had a personal connection to Durham; he was said to have experienced two miracles ascribed to Saint Cuthbert (whose cult was centred at Durham) and had previously travelled there to give thanks for those miracles. This may have been his motivation for donating land to that priory. It is unlikely that the monks of Durham held any land at Lytham up to that point. As a house dependent on Durham, Lytham Priory was small, with only two or three monks at a time. Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s, the land occupied by Lytham Priory came into the possession of local landowner Cuthbert Clifton who built a house there in the 17th century. This house was replaced by

, built 1757–1764.

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * * * * * Benedictine monasteries in England Buildings and structures in the Borough of Fylde Lytham St Annes Monasteries in Lancashire 1190s establishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 12th century 1530s disestablishments in England {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub

History

See also

References