Country England Demolished 1920s Structural system Brick Architectural style Jacobean architecture Architect George Webster | Completed 1850s Client Rawathorne Family Town or city Penwortham Construction started 1535 | |
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Penwortham Priory was first a Benedictine priory and, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a country house in the village of Penwortham, near Preston, Lancashire. The house was demolished as the village expanded into a town and a housing estate has replaced the mansion house and its grounds of which no trace remain.
Contents
Map of Penwortham Priory, Penwortham, Preston, UK
History
Before 1086, William the Conqueror gave this area of Lancashire to his relative, Roger the Poitevin. A small castle was built on the hill in Penwortham overlooking the river crossing and the castle mound (the motte) can still be seen behind St Mary's church. Roger gave land to the Benedictine Evesham Abbey and a small daughter cell was built at Penwortham, starting in 1075. The priory, dedicated to Saint Mary, had no independence from Evesham but functioned until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1535.
Mansion
The priory and its lands were sold to the Fleetwood family at a price of £3,088. The Fleetwoods built a mansion which became known as Penwortham Priory and lived there from the Dissolution until 1749.
The Rawsthorne family lived at the Priory from 1783 until it was demolished in 1925. The Rawsthornes employed architect, George Webster, to redesign the priory in the mid-19th century.
Penwortham Priory became a victim of the expansion of Penwortham in the 1920s, when it was demolished to make way for housing. The Lodge was taken down in 1912 and rebuilt in Moss Lane, Hutton.