Conishead Priory
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Conishead Priory is a large Gothic Revival building on the Furness peninsula near Ulverston in Cumbria.
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[edit] History of the site
An Augustinian priory was founded at Conishead in the twelfth century and existed there until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The lands were then leased to Thomas Stanley, 2nd Baron Monteagle and afterwards briefly belonged to William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, before being bought in 1548 by William Sandys, a brother of Archbishop Edwin Sandys. Sandys was killed in a dispute in 1559 and is commemorated by an effigy in Ulverston church; his son Francis died without issue in 1583 leaving two married half-sisters, Margaret Dodding and Barbara Philipson, as heirs. Margaret's grandson George Dodding, a zealous Roundhead,[1] later bought out the Philipsons; his son Miles died in 1683 leaving two daughters. One died childless, so the estate passed through her sister Sarah, wife of John Bradyll of Portfield, to their son Dodding Braddyll, Whig MP for Lancaster 1715-22[2]. Dodding's son Thomas Braddyll in turn died unmarried in 1776, leaving Conishead to Wilson Gale, his first cousin once removed, who changed his name to Wilson Gale-Braddyll. Throughout this period the building itself changed considerably.[3]
[edit] The present building
Wilson Gale-Braddyll was succeeded in 1818 by his only son Thomas (1776-1862), who further altered the family name the following year by becoming Thomas Richmond-Gale-Braddyll. In 1821 he served as High Sheriff of Lancashire, and that same year Conishead was demolished to make way for a new house.
The designer of the new Conishead was Philip William Wyatt, son of James Wyatt and one of an illustrious clan of architects. However, he was not destined to enjoy success in the field; he was dismissed from the project while it was in progress[4], was declared bankrupt in 1833 and sent to the debtors' prison[5], dying in 1835. Wyatt's replacement was George Webster of Kendal, from another architectural family.
The building took some 15 years and around £149,000 to complete, but its owner was bankrupted and forced to sell it to Henry William Askew. The future of the Priory was not as a family home but as an institution: it became a spa hotel in 1878 and for much of the twentieth century it was a convalescent home for Durham miners, also serving as a hospital in World War II. Since 1976 it has been the home of the Manjushri Kadampa Buddhist community, who have done much to preserve its structure, and the Kadampa Buddhist Temple has been built in the grounds.[6]
[edit] References
- ^ Victoria County History. (1914). "Townships: Ulverston". A History of the County of Lancashire: Volume 8.
- ^ VCH Lancashire Vol. 8
- ^ Gastrell, Rt. Rev. Francis. (1850).Notitia Cestriensis. Vol. II part III. Manchester: printed for The Chetham Society.
- ^ Robinson, John Martin. (1991).A Guide to the Country Houses of the North West. London: Constable
- ^ Robinson, John Martin. (2004). "Wyatt, Benjamin Dean (bap.1775, d.1855)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press.
- ^ Conishead Priory, Ulverston, Cumbria | History
