Kirkham Priory

Chris Barnes has been a member of the Circle since 1977. Occasionally serving on the Committee, he is the Circle’s archivist.. Educated at Christ’s Hospital, the Blue Coat School, he served in the Royal Signals and as a civil servant., working abroad and spending two years in Cyprus. Writing articles about the Yorkshire countryside, often illustrated by his wife Pauline. His work includes short stories and poems and has been published in The Lady and Yorkshire Journal.



KIRKHAM PRIORY


BY CHRIS BARNES

One day in the early years of the twelfth century, the story goes, William Espee was riding by the river Derwent. His horse was startled by a wild boar, and threw its rider. His head struck the base of a stone cross, and he died instantly. .
As a first memorial his father, Walter, founded an
Augustinian monastery at the scene of the tragedy. Today the ruins of the Priory are in the care of English Heritage, an evocative reminder of a tragedy of long ago.
As well as founding the better-known Cistercian Abbey at Rievaulx, Walter Espee gave Kirkham a manor house, a church, 24 acres of land between the wood and the river, pig pastures, "oxgangs", and every tenth penny from his mill takings. Later, he added the mill itself, a meadow and a fishery. He became a monk, though whether at Kirkham or Rievaulx is not known.
There was co-operation between the two monasteries, even occasional talk of a take-over of the Priory by its larger neighbour. Perhaps the enclosed Augustinians envied their Brothers a few miles away, who, mixing freely among the parishes, had many more worldly contacts.
Visitors to may delight in the setting as much as in the ruins. It Is a landscape of gentle ridges and dales, pasture and parkland stretching away towards neighbouring Castle Howard. The fast-flowing Derwent is crossed by an elegant stone bridge, rebuilt in the 18th century. A riverside footpath leads invitingly past a weir through meadows and woodland.
Most of what can be seen of the Priory dates from the extensive alterations started in the early 1300s. The aisled nave was completely
rebuilt. Traces of this, the cloister, choir, refectory, chapter house, guesthouse and kitchen may be Identified from a plan of the buildings.
The money ran out long before these changes were complete. In
spite of the sale of "corrodes", or church pensions, the Priory
owed the huge sum of £ l,000 when the work was first suspended and
then abandoned.
An idea of the importance of the place is given by the tombstones of some of the Lords of Helmsley still to be seen. One,, William de Roos, was buried prominently immdiately in front of the high altar.
The showpiece of the Priory is the Gatehouse, to be seen from the roadway. The outer facade has a splendid series of small sculptings and mouldings; likenesses of St George and the Dragon, David and Goliath, St Bartholomew and St Philip, Christ In C-,lory. Among them are the colourful coats of arms of the de Roos family.
Thankfully, much of this stonework escaped destruction, As early as 1733 it was in use as a Public House, and for many years after that it was the site of the Kirkham Bird Fair.

The main tower of the Priory blew down in 1784, but much else was plundered by builders long before that. The conservation of listed buildings that have out-,-grown their use is a relatively modern one, and nobody would have questioned those who helped themselves. A house across the road has the upper half of two figures built into Its front wall, an Ironic comment on changing values.
In 1539, fateful year, there were the Prior and 17 Canons in residence, much the same number as there were 200 years earlier. one wonders if they heard rumours of impending change to a way of life they thought would go on for ever. They thought, perhaps, that their community was too insignifcant to be worth the attention of Thomas Cromwell and his staff In far-away London,
There would have been an unannounced visit from an official who had come to catalogue their numbers and the value of the property. Then there would have been the date when they must leave their only home, at first a long way ahead, coming ever nearer.
Then that unimaginable day when they celebrated their very last Mass. Even then they can have had no notion of the part they were playing in one of the turning points of history.
Prior John, records show, was awarded an annual pension of E50, but nothing is known of the fate of the Canons.
Kirkham Priory, not one of the great monasteries of Yorkshire, still somewhat overshadowed by Rievaulx, has a long story to tell from young Williams Espee's tragic accident to today's Summer visitors.
Part of the story of England.,this North Yorkshire priory is just over half way between York and Malton , just off the busy A 64 near Whitwell on the Hill.