York Historic Environment Record

A Gilbertine Priory founded circa 1200 by Hugh Murdac, Archdeacon of Cleveland, and dissolved in 1538. Only part of the precinct wall remains. Excavations have most of the plan, excepting the claustral West range which has been totally destroyed. The cloister was arranged to the North of the church. There was a timber church on the site in the 12th century prior to the construction of the priory, which probably began in 1195. The earliest stone church was an aisleless structure with a central crossing, had short transepts with eastern chapels, and a presbytery. The dormitory and chapter house were in the East range of the cloister, and the refectory in the North range. Altered in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, when the church was demolished and rebuilt as a smaller, aisleless, buttressed building with reduced transepts and presbytery. The East range was rebuilt, the chapter house taken out of use. Part of the southern boundary wall was visible in 1958 in Blue Bridge Lane. The site is now covered by modern development and there no visible remains. Renovated sections of the tower courses of the precinct wall were incorporated into the modern wall along Blue Bridge Lane at SE60655100 and SE65695100.