{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}} {{More citations needed|date=March 2009}} {{Infobox building |name = Penwortham Priory |image = Penworthampriory.jpg |caption = Penwortham Priory |pushpin_map = United Kingdom Borough of South Ribble |coordinates = {{coord|53.7486|-2.7299|display=inline,title}} |location_town = [[Penwortham]] |location_country = England |architect = [[George Webster (Architect)|George Webster]] |client = [[Rawsthorne Family]] |engineer = |construction_start_date = 1535 |completion_date = 1850s |demolished_date = 1920s |cost = |structural_system = Brick |architectural_style = [[Jacobean architecture|Jacobean]] }} '''Penwortham Priory''' was first a [[Benedictine]] [[priory]] and, after the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries]], a [[country house]] in the village of [[Penwortham]], near [[Preston, Lancashire|Preston]], [[Lancashire]]. The house was demolished as the village expanded into a town and a housing estate has replaced the mansion house and its grounds of which no trace remain.
==History== Before 1086, [[William the Conqueror]] gave this area of Lancashire to his relative, [[Roger the Poitevin]]. A small castle was built on the hill in Penwortham overlooking the river crossing and the castle mound (the [[Motte-and-bailey castle|motte]]) can still be seen behind [[St Mary's Church, Penwortham|St Mary's church]]. Roger gave land to the Benedictine [[Evesham Abbey]] and a small daughter cell was built at Penwortham, starting in 1075.<ref name=vch>{{citation |editor1-last=Farrer |editor1-first=William |editor2-last=Brownbill |editor2-first=J |title=The Priory of Penwortham|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=38344 |work=A History of the County of Lancaster: Volume 2 |publisher=British History Online |pages=104–106 |year=1908 |access-date=2010-11-19}}</ref> The priory, dedicated to Saint Mary, had no independence from Evesham but functioned until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1535.
==Mansion== Once seized, the priory and its lands were sold to the Fleetwood family at a price of £3,088. The Fleetwoods built a mansion on the site which took the name of Penwortham Priory. The family continued to live there until 1749.
Ownership passed to the Rawsthorne family, who lived at the Priory from 1783 and in the mid-19th century they employed the architect [[George Webster (architect)|George Webster]] to redesign the house.<ref>{{Citation | last =Hartwell| first =Clare| last2 = Pevsner | first2 = Nikolaus | author2-link =Nikolaus Pevsner| series= The Buildings of England| title =Lancashire: North | publisher =[[Yale University Press]] | year =2009 | orig-year=1969 | location = New Haven and London| page = 352| isbn = 978-0-300-12667-9}}</ref>
The Penwortham Priory house later became a victim of the expansion of Penwortham village, especially after the First World War. Already in 1912 the Lodge had been taken down and rebuilt in Moor Lane, [[Hutton, Lancashire|Hutton]]. The house itself was finally demolished in 1925 to make way for housing.
The priory is still part of Penwortham Golf Club's logo to this day.
==See also== {{portal|Lancashire}} *[[List of works by George Webster]]
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Benedictine houses of England and Wales}} {{Borough of South Ribble buildings}}
[[Category:Benedictine monasteries in England]] [[Category:Monasteries in Lancashire]] [[Category:Buildings and structures in South Ribble]] [[Category:1070s establishments in England]] [[Category:Christian monasteries established in the 1070s]] [[Category:1535 disestablishments in England]] [[Category:George Webster buildings]]