Site of Alien/Carthusian Priory at Monks Kirby

Description of this historic site

The possible site of a Carthusian Monastery, a priory of Carthusian monks, dating to the Medieval period. The site is suggested by documentary evidence. It is located in the area of the church in Monks Kirby.

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Notes about this historic site

1 In 1077 a cell or priory of Benedictine monks under obedience to the Abbey of St Nicholas at Angiers was established at ‘Kirkbury’. The priory was given the church at Kirkbury which had been ruinous and was rebuilt. In 1396 the priory was granted to the Carthusians of the Isle of Axholme, in 1399 it was restored to its original order, but in the reign of Henry V (1413-22) it was returned to the Carthusians.
2 The priory buildings were on the N side of the chancel of St Edith’s Church. Parts of them were embodied in the church during the 15th century reconstruction to form the chapel. Apart from the blocked openings, a door jamb, offsets for an upper floor against the chapel, and the line of a steep roof on the N wall of the chancel, nothing remains of the priory buildings.
4 The map shows a courtyard arrangement of buildings N and E of the church.
5 Is it possible that these are priory buildings converted into a manor house (PRN 3531)?
6 The area now is part churchyard, part pasture.