Cartmel Priory
Cartmel Priory
Cartmel Priory, the Priory Church of St Mary, is a Grade I former Augustinian priory church in Cartmel, Cumbria, founded about 1189–90 by William Marshal and now the Anglican parish church of St Mary and St Michael in the Diocese of Carlisle.
- Location
- Cartmel, Cumbria
- Country
- England
- County
- Cumbria
- City / town
- Cartmel
- Address
- Cartmel, Cumbria, LA11 6QD
- Postcode
- LA11 6QD
- Built
- Founded c.1189–90; choir, crossing and transepts of the first campaign; later medieval nave, tower and east window
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Mary and Michael
- Diocese
- Carlisle
- Parish
- Cartmel (St Mary and St Michael)
- Grade
- I
- Style
- Transitional Romanesque to Early English; later Gothic
- Materials
- Stone medieval monastic church; 17th-century collar-rafter roofs; 15th-century stalls
- Grid reference
- SD 379 788
- Opening hours
- Open daily from 9.30am to 5.30pm (3.30pm in winter).
- Access
- Level access to the main areas. Accessible toilets in church
Overview
Historic England lists the Priory Church of St Mary (1335798, 25 March 1970) as an important survival of a medieval monastic church. William Marshal, later Earl of Pembroke, founded an Augustinian house here about 1189. Primary fabric from the first campaign survives in the choir, crossing, Piper Choir and transepts. The nave, the diagonally set upper stage of the tower, aisles, Town Choir and great east window belong to later pre-Dissolution Gothic phases. After the Dissolution in 1536–37 the church was retained for the parish. The listing highlights fifteenth-century stalls with misericords, early-seventeenth-century canopies and screens, and the Harrington tomb of about 1347. The parish website is cartmelpriory.org.uk.