St Martins Priory Ruins

ST MARTIN'S A 6136 NZ 10 SE (east side)

4/113 St Martin's Priory Ruins 19.12.51

GV I

Marked on Ordnance Survey Map as Remains of St Martin's Priory (Benedictine). Ruins of small medieval monastic house. C12, or possibly earlier, and C15. Sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings. Medieval plan indeterminate, as some of the stone has been reused for field and garden walls but main ruins are a tower-like structure, possibly a gatehouse, and the western section of rectilinear structure, probably the church, linked by a wall. Tower: C15. 3 storeys, 1 bay. Quoins. West elevation: coursed rubble to lowest storey, with double-chamfered pointed-arch doorway with continuous moulding and label; first-floor chamfered cross window (the mullions a C19 restoration); second-floor vent. Crenellated C19 restoration of roofline has replaced original pitched roof, the kneelers of which remain. Left return: buttress to left. Right return: single-light first- floor window; second-floor vent; lean-to addition containing stone spiral staircase with access in rear wall. Interior: rubble barrel-vault to ground-floor chamber which has, in left and right walls, a tiny vent with very deeply-splayed reveals. Church: rubble walls of C12, or possibly earlier. West elevation: round-arched doorway of 2 chevroned orders, 1 formerly shafted, with weathered scalloped capitals. Above, a C15 segmental-arched window with fragments of 3 lights with Perpendicular tracery. Left return: remains of stepped buttresses at both ends of surviving wall, and matching Perpendicular window at a lower level. On right return, upper part of hollow-chamfered pointed-arched doorway. The wall between church and tower contains a segmental-arched doorway. St Martin's Farmhouse to the west, not included in the listing, with a medieval-looking buttress, and the surround of a 2-light mullion window on the north end, may represent a guesthouse. In 1100, land and a chapel dedicated to St Martin were given by Wymar, Steward to the Earl of Richmond, to St Mary's Abbey in York, which made St Martin's a Cell under a Prior. Scheduled as an Ancient Monument. VCH i, p 307.

Listing NGR: NZ1776700755