St Mary's Penwortham

St Mary's Penwortham. . , History , St Mary's Conservation Area is the largest conservation area in South Ribble at approximately 11.53 hectares. The designation of St Mary's as a Conservation Area is in recognition of the area's historical and architectural importance, centred around the church, castle motte and the site of a priory. The area contains five listed buildings including St Mary's Church (Grade II)., Ancient Church Wood , This woodland survived the medieval clearances because the nature of the ground was unsuitable for agriculture. A contemporary engraving shows that the steep slope between Church Avenue and the river at the bottom of Penwortham Hill was wooded in 1728. It can therefore be reasonably assumed that the area was wooded for much longer. The steep bank has tended to make access difficult and this has enabled the slope's rich stock of native plants to survive., Penwortham Castle/Castle Motte: Scheduled Ancient Monument , This was the earliest known building in Penwortham and was built between 1068 and 1072. It is likely to have been used as a defensive structure during the Norman Conquest of the North of England. The Castle is listed as a Scheduled Ancient Monument. It is a Motte and Bailey Castle of possible Pre-Conquest date, located north east the Church in the Victorian graveyard. The motte is now not recognisable as anything other than a small hillock. The bailey is now filled with old graves. Simple castles of this type had the function of assisting conquest by providing a secure base or bolthole, and were usually abandoned soon after conquest had been achieved., St Mary's Church: Grade II Listed Building , Penwortham is one of the ancient parishes of Lancashire. The earliest written record of this church is from the 1140s, however the original church has disappeared and St Mary's was built in the 14th Century. Although much altered, the chancel is the oldest surviving part of the church. The tower dates to the 15th Century and the nave was rebuilt in 1855. Many repairs took place in 1812 and the present structure is an amalgam of the work of different periods., Penwortham Priory , This was a Benedictine foundation and a daughter house of the great Abbey of Evesham in Worcestershire. It was founded in the early 1140s. There is little information available, but the Priory was converted into a private Manor House in the 1540s by the Fleetwood family. The house survived until 1832 when, after major alterations in 1815-17, it was finally rebuilt as a Gothic Mansion in 1831-1835 with mock battlements and corner terraces. In the late 1920s, the house was demolished and the site used for speculative housing. The Priory Lodge House on Penwortham Hill was dismantled to enable road widening, and was re-erected in Hutton where it still stands today.