Our final visit of the tour was Lanercost Priory a really delightful place.
Lanercost was small and always pretty poor, but they built some nice buildings nonetheless.
Of course, being poor, they were one of the first to be shut down by Henry VIII, but the nave of the church was converted into the village church and kept alive. The new owners reused some of the buildings and built some new ones, but the main buildings of the priory were abandoned.
A quick word about priories vs monasteries. Monasteries were built for monks, members of a religious order generally separate from the community. Priories were constructed to give groups of priests a place for communal life, but they were expected to spend time in the community preaching. Priories were generally smaller and poorer than monasteries.
The row of columns and arches to create a side isle on one side only was nice. The wall across the end was added to divide the larger church to create the smaller village church. It took me a few minutes to notice that the ruins of the apse were still there and visible through the windows.
The ghostly effect was atmospheric.
They have recently restored the embroidered hanging on the wall behind the altar.
In Victorian times, the church was discovered and adopted by the romantics. The one owner was buried there and when their infant sone died he was too.
The remaining details or the architecture are quite well done.
It's not a big or fancy place, but a lovely small church.
Note: It's less than a mile from Hadrian's Wall and, of course, was built mainly with stones from the wall.
