Pill Priory is a Tironian house founded near

Milford Haven Milford Haven ( ) is a town and community (Wales), community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. It is on the north side of the Milford Haven Waterway, an estuary forming a natural harbour that has been used as a port since the Middle Ages. The town was ...

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 ...

, South West

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in the late 12th century. Pill

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 ...

was founded as a daughter house of St Dogmaels Abbey (raised to Abbey status in 1120), near Cardigan, itself a priory of the Tironensian order of reformed

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 ...

monks. The other daughter houses were Caldey (Caldey Island, Pembrokeshire, Wales) and Glascarrig, County Wexford in Ireland. Pill Priory was established by the Roche family of the Barony and Roch Castle, Pembrokeshire and was founded within a few years of St Dogmaels. The founder was Adam de la Roche, a descendant of Godebert de Fleming. E. M. Pritchard thought it to be around 1180–90, while the Pembrokeshire antiquarian

Richard Fenton Richard Fenton (January 1747 – November 1821) was a Welsh lawyer, topography, topographer and poet. Biography Fenton was born in January 1747 in St David's, Pembrokeshire, and was baptised in St David's Cathedral on 20 February 1747, "being t ...

considered the earlier date of 1160–70 to be possible. The priory was jointly dedicated to the

Blessed Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...

and to St Budoc, a dedication of it was the former chapel of St Budoc (now " St Botolph") which lay 1.3 km north-east of Pill Priory. The community may always have been small; it was recorded as five monks in 1534 and four in 1536. The priory site and its environs, including five orchards, a wood and a meadow at Pill, the priory mill and several other possessions including St Budoc's and Steynton Church were demised by the crown to John Doune who, in 1544, confirmed the grant of his interest to John Wogan who in turn had been the lessee of the "Priory" in 1536–7. In 1536 St Dogmaels Abbey and its daughters at Pill and Caldey were dissolved in the suppression of those monastic houses with values of less than £200 and fell to the crown. The

Valor Ecclesiasticus The ''Valor Ecclesiasticus'' (Latin: "church valuation") was a survey of the finances of the church in England, Wales and English controlled parts of Ireland made in 1535 on the orders of Henry VIII. It was colloquially called the Kings books, ...

recorded that Pill Priory was worth annually £67 15s. 3d. gross, £52 2S. 5d. net after charges. The manor of Pill, including the priory site and associated holdings, was sold in June 1546 to the aspiring local landowners Roger Barlow of Slebech and his brother Thomas. An account of Pill Priory by the Pembrokeshire antiquarian Richard Fenton, writing c. 1811, describes the priory ruins much as they survive today.Fenton 1811, pp. 179-81. The entire site remains in private hands. The free-standing remains of the priory church's

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 ...

arch is now the most striking element of the site, and forms a garden feature, together with the remains of the south transept. The Pill Priory Cottage living quarters contain elements from the conventual buildings which were arranged around a more-or-less formalised cloister. The remains of all are constructed from

Old Red Sandstone Old Red Sandstone, abbreviated ORS, is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the eastern seaboard of North America. It ...

and Carboniferous Limestone, both from local sources. The chancel arch and south transept are designated as

scheduled monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

s by

Cadw (, a Welsh verbal noun meaning "keeping/preserving") is the historic environment service of the Welsh Government and part of the Tourism and Culture group. works to protect the historic buildings and structures, the landscapes and heritage ...

(the Welsh Government historic environment service). The living quarters are listed as Grade II*.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.pillpriory.co.uk
''Pill Priory''
Coflein.gov.uk Tironensian monasteries Buildings and structures in Milford Haven Archaeological sites in Pembrokeshire Ruins in Wales Scheduled monuments in Wales Grade II* listed buildings in Pembrokeshire 12th-century establishments in Wales