Image ID: 14757

Worksop Priory Church, the churchyard and Lady Chapel ruins

Priorswell Road
Worksop
England

The ruins on the left are of St Mary's Chapel which was part of Worksop's Priory Church and has since been restored and re-incorporated into the main body of the church. The Priory was founded on March 3rd 1103. An initial grant of monies and lands was made which founded the great Priory by the De Lovetot Lords of the Manor. (The modern East End of the church, not seen here, was only constructed in the 1970s, through a legacy from a former choir-boy.) The Canons of St Augustine were to establish Worksop Priory for the worship of God and the service of the local community and was dedicated to St. Mary & St. Cuthbert. The Chapel dedicated to St Mary (or Lady Chapel) was built c 1350 by Maud, wife of Gerald De Furnival, and she was one of the great benefactors to the Priory. At one time the Priory had extensive outbuildings for the Canons. On the north side of the great church were the cloisters and living accommodation, all built in fine stone. The River Ryton served to bring water first to the Priory Mill on the Canch, then to the kitchens, (where the church hall now stands). It then flushed away the kitchen and domestic waste before being dammed to provide fish ponds on what is now Bracebridge. There were farm buildings, barns and stores, splendid rooms for the Prior, a place for writing and a library. The gatehouse, a tudor addition to the Priory, is considered to be 'one of the most interesting buildings in the county,' which features pre-reformation statuary, a wide late perpendicular tracery window and an unusual projecting wayside shrine to house an image of the Virgin.

Date: 1900

Organisation Reference: NCCN001164

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