Neasham Priory is a

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of mon ...

founded for a community of

Benedictine , image = Medalla San Benito.PNG , caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal , abbreviation = OSB , formation = , motto = (English: 'Pray and Work') , foun ...

nuns before 1157. Located on the River Tees near

Sockburn Sockburn is a village and former civil parish to the south of Darlington in County Durham, England. It is situated at the apex of a meander of the River Tees, known locally as the Sockburn Peninsula. Today, all that remains of the village is an ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, it was the only such institution in the county to be independent of

Durham Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Christ, Blessed Mary the Virgin and St Cuthbert of Durham, commonly known as Durham Cathedral and home of the Shrine of St Cuthbert, is a cathedral in the city of Durham, County Durham, England. It is the seat of t ...

Priory. It was apparently never wealthy or notable.

History

The priory was founded around 1150 by Emma, daughter of Waldef the

thegn In Anglo-Saxon England, thegns were aristocratic landowners of the second rank, below the ealdormen who governed large areas of England. The term was also used in early medieval Scandinavia for a class of retainers. In medieval Scotland, there w ...

Hepple Hepple is a small village and parish in rural Northumberland, west of Rothbury, which provides most of its local services. It is on the edge of the Northumberland National Park, and lies on the bank of the river Coquet, at a location which was ...

. In the 15th century an investigation was conducted by the Bishop of Durham as a result of some misbehaviour by members of the community. On 29 December 1540, the prioress Jane Lawson surrendered the house to agents of the King, and the priory was presumably dissolved at around that time. The house was acquired by her brother, James Lawson. There are no visible remains of the priory, but since the 19th century a house known as Neasham Abbey has stood on its approximate site. A solitary wall containing a reconstructed Gothic window now stands in

Darlington Darlington is a market town in the Borough of Darlington, County Durham, England. The River Skerne flows through the town; it is a tributary of the River Tees. The Tees itself flows south of the town. In the 19th century, Darlington underwen ...

town centre, and is purported to have come from the priory. A more reliable remnant, however, is a large stone carving on display in the treasury at Durham Cathedral.

Burials

Ralph Fitzwilliam Ralph Fitzwilliam (c. 1256 – 11 February 1317), or Ralph, son of William de Grimthorpe, Lord of Greystoke, was a feudal baron with extensive landholdings in the North of England, representative of a manorial lordship seated where Grimthorpe ...

References

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History

Burials

References

Further reading