Priory of St Mary is a Grade I listed building in the Yorkshire Dales National Park local planning authority area, England. A Medieval Priory.
Priory of St Mary
- WRENN ID
- seventh-porch-fern
- Grade
- I
- Local Planning Authority
- Yorkshire Dales National Park
- Constituency
- Skipton and Ripon MP: Sir Julian Smith (Con)
- Country
- England
- Type
- Priory
- Period
- Medieval
- Address
- Priory of St Mary, B 6160, Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire
- OS grid reference
- SE 074 541
- Coordinates
- 53.98365, -1.88839
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Priory of St Mary consists of the remains of a religious building dating from the 12th to the 14th centuries, constructed from ashlar and rubblestone. The structure includes transepts and a chancel, with other parts of the priory visible only at foundation level. The nave has been repurposed as the parish church of St Mary.
The south transept, from the 13th century, features two bays, with only the west wall remaining. It has an offset angle buttress topped with a pinnacle and decorated style pointed arched windows that lack tracery. The north transept, also from the 13th century, has two bays and offset angle buttresses. Its east side retains a two-bay arcade with triple-chamfered pointed arches supported by an octagonal pier, above which are three-light cusped reticulated traceried windows with four-centred arches and a continuous hoodmould. There are remains of an east chapel, while the west side includes a 13th-century doorcase and a large decorated window without tracery.
The chancel, spanning the 12th to 14th centuries, has five bays defined by offset buttresses, with the east end featuring offset angle buttresses, one of which has a pinnacle. The third bay contains a four-centred arched doorway, with a pointed arched opening to its right. The windows are large pointed arches from the Decorated period, with one on the south side retaining tracery of three lights. The large east window from the same period lacks tracery and is positioned above a small pointed arched niche.
Inside the chancel, there is intersecting late 12th-century blank arcading with round-headed arches on scalloped and waterleaf capitals. The crossing piers display scalloped capitals and double or triple-chamfered pointed arches. A tomb recess is located in the north wall, alongside the remains of the sedilia in the south wall. The priory was a house of Augustinian canons and was suppressed in 1539. It is also recognized as a scheduled ancient monument in West Riding of Yorkshire.
Local climate
Priory of St Mary sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,050 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 84% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 78% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 50 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 92% of listed buildings. Of these, 29 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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