Monk Bretton Priory, Barnsley
Welcome to Monk Bretton Priory
Founded in the 1150s, Mon Bretton Priory belonged to the powerful French order of Cluny. The monks lived their lives according to the 6th century Rule of St Benedict.
Sometime between 1090 and 1099 Robert de Lacy, who ran his lordship from Rontefract Castle, set up a priory of Cluniac monks - St John’s at Pontefract. Those monks came from the great Cluniac mother house at La Charite-sur-Loire in France. By founding a priory, Robert was ensuring that his and his family’s souls were saved through daily prayers said by the monks.
Sixty years later in 1154, Adam Fitz Swain, a local landowner whose grandfather had been a tenant of the de Lacys, set up his own Cluniac priory here at “Lund” (or Bretton), staffed by monks from St John’s.
You are in the north-west corner of the precent of the priory. This 7 acre enclosure contained a meadow, orchard, fishponds and the monks’ cemetery, in addition to the monastic buildings.
The panel scheme has been written and designed by Friends of Monk Bretton Priory in association with English Heritage funded by a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.
Monk Bretton Priory, Barnsley
Welcome to Monk Bretton Priory
Founded in the 1150s, Mon Bretton Priory belonged to the powerful French order of Cluny. The monks lived their lives according to the 6th century Rule of St Benedict.
Sometime between 1090 and 1099 Robert de Lacy, who ran his lordship from Rontefract Castle, set up a priory of Cluniac monks - St John’s at Pontefract. Those monks came from the great Cluniac mother house at La Charite-sur-Loire in France. By founding a priory, Robert was ensuring that his and his family’s souls were saved through daily prayers said by the monks.
Sixty years later in 1154, Adam Fitz Swain, a local landowner whose grandfather had been a tenant of the de Lacys, set up his own Cluniac priory here at “Lund” (or Bretton), staffed by monks from St John’s.
You are in the north-west corner of the precent of the priory. This 7 acre enclosure contained a meadow, orchard, fishponds and the monks’ cemetery, in addition to the monastic buildings.
The panel scheme has been written and designed by Friends of Monk Bretton Priory in association with English Heritage funded by a Heritage Lottery Fund grant.