{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}} {{Infobox religious building | building_name = Pill Priory, Tironensian Monastery (ruins) | image = Pill Priory.jpg | image_upright = | caption = | map_type = | map_size = | map_caption = | location = Milford Haven, South Wales, United Kingdom | geo = | religious_affiliation = [[Catholicism]] [[Benedictine]] | rite = | region = [[Milford Haven]], [[Wales]] | state = | province = | territory = | prefecture = | sector = | district = | cercle = | municipality = | consecration_year = | status = Private | functional_status = | heritage_designation = | leadership = | architecture = | architect = | architecture_type = | architecture_style = | founded_by = Adam de la Roche | funded_by = | general_contractor = Tironensian monks | facade_direction = | groundbreaking = | year_completed = Second half, 12th century | construction_cost = | specifications = | capacity = | length = | width = | width_nave = | height_max = {{convert|10|m}} | minaret_quantity = | minaret_height = | spire_quantity = | spire_height = | materials = [[Old Red Sandstone]], [[Carboniferous Limestone]] | nrhp = | added = | refnum = | designated = }} '''Pill Priory''' is a [[Tironensian Order|Tironian]] house founded near [[Milford Haven]], [[Pembrokeshire]], South West [[Wales]] in the late 12th century.<ref>For a full description and discussion, see {{cite journal |first=N. D. |last=Ludlow |title=Pill Priory, 1996–1999: Recent Work at a Tironian House in Pembrokeshire |journal=[[Medieval Archaeology]] |volume=46 |year=2002 |pages=41–80 |doi=10.1179/med.2002.46.1.41 }}</ref>

Pill [[Priory]] was founded as a daughter house of [[St Dogmaels Abbey]] (raised to Abbey status in 1120), near [[Cardigan, Ceredigion|Cardigan]], itself a priory of the Tironensian order of reformed [[Benedictine]] monks. The other daughter houses were [[Caldey]] (Caldey Island, Pembrokeshire, Wales) and Glascarrig, County Wexford in Ireland.

Pill Priory was established by the Roche family of the Barony and [[Roch Castle]], Pembrokeshire and was founded within a few years of St Dogmaels. The founder was Adam de la Roche, a descendant of Godebert de Fleming.<ref>{{cite book |first=E. M. |last=Pritchard |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofstdogma00prituoft/historyofstdogma00prituoft_djvu.txt |title=The History of St Dogmael's Abbey |location=London |year=1907 }}, in which much of the primary source material for the priory is assembled and introduced (esp. pp. 124–38).</ref> E. M. Pritchard thought it to be around 1180–90,<ref>Pritchard 1907, p. 124.</ref> while the Pembrokeshire antiquarian [[Richard Fenton]] considered the earlier date of 1160–70 to be possible.<ref>R. Fenton. [https://books.google.com/books?id=UYVRAAAAYAAJ&q=Pill+Priory A Historical Tour through Pembrokeshire] (London 1811), London 180.</ref>

The priory was jointly dedicated to the [[Blessed Virgin Mary]] and to [[St Budoc]], a dedication of it was the former chapel of St Budoc (now "[[St Botolph]]") which lay 1.3&nbsp;km north-east of Pill Priory.

The community may always have been small; it was recorded as five monks in 1534 and four in 1536.<ref>Pritchard 1907, p. 139. It appears, moreover, that the sister house at Caldey was, periodically at least, occupied by a single monk (Haverfordwest Reference Library, Francis Green Collection, Vol. 12, 538, State papers).</ref>

The priory site and its environs, including five orchards, a wood and a meadow at Pill, the priory mill and several other possessions including St Budoc's and [[Steynton]] Church were demised by the crown to John Doune who, in 1544, confirmed the grant of his interest to [[John Wogan]] who in turn had been the lessee of the "Priory" in 1536–7.<ref>E. A. Lewis and J. C. Davies (eds.), Records of the Court of Augmentation relating to Wales and Monmouthshire (Cardiff, 1954), pp. 166-7: Haverfordwest Reference Library, Francis Green Collection, Vol. 12, 576, State papers.</ref>

[[Image:Pillpriory present2.jpg|thumb|left|Remains of Pill Priory 2010]]

In 1536 St Dogmaels Abbey and its daughters at Pill and Caldey were dissolved in the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|suppression of those monastic houses]] with values of less than £200 and fell to the crown.<ref>The prior, William Wall, had been a monk at Pill in 1502: {{cite book |editor-first=R. A. |editor-last=Roberts |title=Episcopal Registers of the Bishops of St Davids 1397–1518 |volume=2 |location=London |year=1917 |page=73 }} He was granted a pension of £10 (Haverfordwest Reference Library, Francis Green Collection, Vol. I2, 538, State papers).</ref> The [[Valor Ecclesiasticus]] recorded that Pill Priory was worth annually £67 15s. 3d. gross, £52 2S. 5d. net after charges.<ref>Knowles and Hadcock, [https://books.google.com/books?id=WlotAAAAMAAJ&q=Pill Medieval Religious Houses], Longmans, Green, 1953 op. cit. in note 6, 106.</ref> The manor of Pill, including the priory site and associated holdings, was sold in June 1546 to the aspiring local landowners Roger Barlow of [[Slebech]] and his brother Thomas.

An account of Pill Priory by the Pembrokeshire antiquarian Richard Fenton, writing c. 1811, describes the priory ruins much as they survive today.<ref>Fenton 1811, pp. 179-81.</ref>

The entire site remains in private hands. The free-standing remains of the priory church's [[chancel]] arch is now the most striking element of the site, and forms a garden feature, together with the remains of the south transept. The Pill Priory Cottage living quarters contain elements from the conventual buildings which were arranged around a more-or-less formalised cloister. The remains of all are constructed from [[Old Red Sandstone]] and [[Carboniferous Limestone]], both from local sources.

The chancel arch and south transept are designated as [[scheduled monument]]s by [[Cadw]] (the Welsh Government historic environment service). The living quarters are [[Listed building|listed]] as Grade II*.

{{Coord|51.724596|N|5.037942|W|display=title}}

== References == {{Reflist}}

== External links == {{Commons category|Pill Priory}} * {{official website|http://www.pillpriory.co.uk}} * [http://www.coflein.gov.uk/en/site/94973/images/PILL+PRIORY,+HUBBERSTON%3BPRIORY+OF+ST+BUDOC+AND+THE+BLESSED+VIRGIN/ ''Pill Priory'']. Coflein.gov.uk

[[Category:Tironensian monasteries]] [[Category:Buildings and structures in Milford Haven]] [[Category:Archaeological sites in Pembrokeshire]] [[Category:Ruins in Wales]] [[Category:Scheduled monuments in Wales]] [[Category:Grade II* listed buildings in Pembrokeshire]] [[Category:12th-century establishments in Wales]]