Caldey Priory is a Grade I- listed

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

Caldey Island Caldey Island (Welsh language, Welsh:''Ynys Bŷr'') is a small island near Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales, less than off the coast. With a recorded history going back over 1,500 years, it is one of the holy islands of Britain. A number of trad ...

off the coast of

Pembrokeshire Pembrokeshire ( ; ) is a Principal areas of Wales, county in the South West Wales, south-west of Wales. It is bordered by Carmarthenshire to the east, Ceredigion to the northeast, and otherwise by the sea. Haverfordwest is the largest town and ...

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

, some south of the modern

Caldey Abbey Caldey Abbey is an abbey of the Trappists situated on Caldey Island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales, south of Tenby. Caldey Island thrived as a centre of Cistercian activity in the Middle Ages. The current abbey is modern; it was built in ...

. The priory gardens are listed on the

Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales The Cadw/ICOMOS Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales is a heritage register of significant historic parks and gardens in Wales. It is maintained by Cadw, the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and ...

History

Sir

Robert fitz Martin Robert fitz Martin ( 10?? – c. 1159) was a knight from Devon whose father, Martin de Turribus, was the first Norman Lord of Kemes, in what had previously been the Dyfed part of Deheubarth. Fitz Martin inherited the Lordship of Kemes from his ...

was granted the island in 1113 and his mother Geva founded St Mary’s Priory as a daughter house of the

Tironensian The Tironensian Order or the Order of Tiron was a medieval Roman Catholic religious order, monastic order named after the location of the Mother Church, mother abbey (Tiron Abbey, , established in 1109) in the woods of Thiron-Gardais (sometimes '' ...

St. Dogmaels Abbey in the 12th century.Bushell, William Done. ''An island of the saints'', 1911, London. p. 4 et seq.
/ref> The priory became a cell of St. Dogmaels. It was constructed of limestone and indigenous sandstone around a small courtyard, and probably built on a preexisting Celtic Christian site, and lasted to the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539. It was a very small monastery, with the number of monks resident there ranging from one in the late 12th century, four in 1402 and six in 1504. The property was acquired by one John Bradshawe of

Presteigne Presteigne (; : the church of St. Andrew) is a town and community (Wales), community on the south bank of the River Lugg in Powys, Wales. The town is located on the England–Wales border, which surrounds it to the north, east and south. Nearby ...

and passed through a succession of owners. The buildings were significantly upgraded in the 16th century after the priory was secularized, but there is no evidence that they were used by either of the owning families of the time. Several centuries later they were used as a farm house, centered on St Illtyd's priory church. Around 1800 they became the farm buildings for a new house built for Thomas Kynaston, owner of the island from 1798. According to Rev. W. D. Bushell, who bought the priory in 1897, the church was in very bad repair and had been used as a blacksmith shop. In 1838, extensive work was done on the south and east walls of the chancel, and the roof. Bushell sold the property in 1906 to the Anglican Benedictine community that built the current abbey, but rented the house and the priory until he died in 1917. The house was subsequently demolished in the 1970s. The priory buildings are built from rubble stone, with slate roofs, and are grouped around a small courtyard. Over the centuries they have been altered many times and have a very complex history. On the north side was a domestic range that has not survived. The

gatehouse A gatehouse is a type of fortified gateway, an entry control point building, enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a town, religious house, castle, manor house, or other fortification building of importance. Gatehouses are typically the most ...

is on the western side and there is a two-storey

dormitory A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm), also known as a hall of residence, a residence hall (often abbreviated to halls), or a hostel, is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential qu ...

with a tower on the eastern. The church stands on the south side, and consists of

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

and west tower with a

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spire ...

. St Illtyd's church is still a consecrated Roman Catholic Church."The Old Priory and St Illtyd's Church". Caldey Island, Wales
/ref>"Caldey Priory", Parks & Gardens, The Hestercombe Gardens Trust
/ref>

Notes

{{reflist, 30em Monasteries in Wales Grade I listed buildings in Tenby Registered historic parks and gardens in Pembrokeshire