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Marrick Priory was a
Marrick Priory was a Benedictine
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict (, abbreviated as O.S.B. or OSB), are a mainly contemplative monastic order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. Initiated in 529, th ...
nunnery in Richmondshire
{{Infobox settlement
, name = Richmondshire District
, type = Non-metropolitan district
, image_skyline =
, imagesize =
, image_caption =
, image_blank_emblem= Richmondshire arms.png
, blank_em ...
, North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...
, England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
, established between 1140 and 1160 by Roger de Aske. The parish Church of the Virgin Mary and St. Andrew and 400 acres of local land also belonged to the priory, which thrived until the 16th century, in spite of the depredations of marauding Scots.
On 15 September 1539 during the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the prioress Christabel Cowper surrendered the priory to the commissioners John Uvedale and Leonard Bekwith. Her sixteen nuns were evicted, the prioress receiving a pension of 100 shillings and the nuns varying amounts down to 20 shillings (£1 sterling). The site was then leased by the crown to Sir John Uvedale (or Woodhall), who went on to purchase it in 1545 for £364. He sold it in 1592 to Sir Timothy Hutton of Marske, who resold it in 1633 to the Blackburns of Blackburn Hall. The church continued to be used as the place of worship for the local people until 1948, after which it was used as a farm building. It is a grade II*
In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...
listed building.
In 1970 the church was converted, after some years of restoration, into an outdoor education and residential centre for young people, providing outdoor activities such as rock climbing, abseiling, open canoeing, kayaking, caving, ropes course, zip wire, orienteering and team building for several thousand people a year.
To the northeast of the priory the Nuns' Steps or Nuns' Causey (causeway) leads through Steps Wood to the village of Marrick
Marrick is a village and List of civil parishes in North Yorkshire, civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England, situated in lower Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, the village is approximately west of Richmond, North ...
. This flagged stone path is thought to have been associated with the priory, perhaps connecting it to the Richmond road or to its lead-mining interests. It is close to Ellerton Priory just along the valley.
Architecture
The church is built in stone with a stone slate roof, and consists of anave
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 ...
, a ruined 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 a west tower. The tower has three stages, a stair tower on the south side, a three-light west window, and square-headed bell openings with mullion
A mullion is a vertical element that forms a division between units of a window or screen, or is used decoratively. It is also often used as a division between double doors. When dividing adjacent window units its primary purpose is a rigid sup ...
s and transoms. On the south wall of the nave is a large round window containing a quatrefoil
A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...
, and most of the other windows are in Perpendicular
In geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at right angles, i.e. at an angle of 90 degrees or π/2 radians. The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', ⟠...
style.
See also
*Listed buildings in Marrick
Marrick is a Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It contains 18 Listed building#England and Wales, listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, one is list ...
* Marrick Priory Farmhouse
References
External links
Archival material at Monasteries in North Yorkshire Benedictine nunneries in England 12th-century establishments in England Christian monasteries established in the 12th century 1948 disestablishments in England Swaledale {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub