Watton Priory barn - rescued from the brink.

Watton Priory was a Gilbertine 'double-house' i.e. a monastery with separate halves for canons and nuns. Although there are extensive earthworks, the only remains above ground are the prior's lodgings and a large monastic barn. Until recently this fine late mediaeval barn was utterly derelict and in a state of imminent collapse. I had heard, however, that the owners had plans to restore it - so over New Year we went to see what has been done. It is very pleasing to see the huge barn repaired, re-roofed and ready for use once again to hold livestock or produce.

January 2017 after restoration

According to Pastscape, there may have been an Anglo-Saxon nunnery (Vetadun) on the site from the 7th to 9th centuries. This is mentioned in Bede.  Watton Priory was founded in 1150 by one Eustace FitzJohn in penance for having joined the Scottish side in the Battle of the Standard at Northallerton in 1138 when King David of Scotland had sought to capitalise of the chaos of the civil war between Stephen and Matilda to grab lands in the North.  Although the Scots lost the battle they held on to gains in northern England and continued to hold sway in there for the next two decades. Eustace, who owned extensive lands in the North, decided to back David. The Minsters of York and Beverley were allied to King Stephen, and the East Riding remained in English hands. Eustace's gesture of 'contrition' was therefore presumably necessary to keep sweet the ecclesiastical powers in this area.

The founding nuns and monks came from Sempringham in Lincolnshire, mother house of the Gilbertine order - the only home-grown English religious order. Accounts of Watton's financial state are contradictory; it is said to have been the wealthiest Gilbertine house and also that it was notorious for its poverty. The Gilbertines were a small, poor order so perhaps both statements are true. Although it owned lands in the East and North Ridings (including at nearby Kilnwick)  the priory perhaps still did not own enough to make it viable. It was also defrauded out of possessions or provisions on more than one occasion. During the Pilgrimage of Grace the Prior also abandoned his flock, leaving them with virtually no money on which to live.

The Prior's lodging (R) and former Dining Hall (L)

Watton was extensively excavated in the 1890s revealing the plan of two separate cloisters and associated buildings. The barn itself stood apart, a short distance to the north. The priory church was not the one to be seen now to the south, which is a parish church dating from the Tudor period. The original church formed part of the original monastic buildings beside the cloister. The church would have been divided down the middle so that there was no contact between the men and women. The canons only had direct contact when giving a dying nun the last rites. Confessions were heard through a slit the length of a finger and the breadth of a thumb, which nuns could also occasionally use to talk to their parents.

The lack of much to see above ground is probably due to the absence of natural stone in this area, the buildings likely having been part brick built and the site haveling been quickly plundered after the Dissolution by neighbours desperate for this scarce commodity. No monastery  in the East Riding has retained significant above-ground remains (or castle, for that matter - cf the abbeys of North Yorkshire where native stone is abundant.

Watton Priory - plan from 1890s excavations

Aelred of Rievaulx's account of the 'Nun of Watton' suggests that life in this neglected Gilbertine backwater was not happy or pleasant for its inhabitants. The account details Abbot Aelred's investigation into an incident where the nuns reacted to an episode of sexual impropriety between a nun and a lay brother with shockingly sadistic violence. This episode occurred in the 12th century and no documents shed any further light on life at Watton after this date.

At the Dissolution, Watton passed into the possession of Robert Holgate, its last prior (he who had temporarily abandoned the Priory in the Pilgrimage of Grace) future Bishop of Llandaff and Archbishop of York).

The Priory remains are visible from the main Beverley to Driffield Road and are accessible via a path out of the back of the churchyard. The church itself is worth a visit and contains the 13th century grave slab of one of the priors of Watton. The layout of the priory can be traced easily from the substantial earthworks.