Conishead Priory

Conishead Priory is a large Gothic Revival building on the Furness peninsula near Ulverston in Cumbria. The priory's name translates literally as "King's Hill Priory". Since 1976 to the present, the building has been occupied by a Buddhist community.

An Augustinian priory was founded at Conishead in the twelfth century and existed there until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The origins of the medieval priory which was founded on the grounds of the present house was founded as a hospital and subsequently developed into a priory during the reign of Henry II (1145–1189). It is thought to have been established as early as 1167 by Gamel de Pennington, and run by the Augustinian order. However, William de Lancaster II, baron of Kendal also claimed to be the owner. After the dissolution the lands were then leased to Thomas Stanley, 2nd Baron Monteagle and afterwards briefly belonged to William Paget, 1st Baron Paget, before being bought in 1548 by William Sandys, a brother of Archbishop Edwin Sandys. Sandys was killed in a dispute in 1559 and is commemorated by an effigy in Ulverston church; his son Francis died without issue in 1583 leaving two married half-sisters, Margaret Dodding and Barbara Philipson, as heirs. Margaret's grandson George Dodding, a zealous Roundhead, later bought out the Philipsons; his son Miles died in 1683 leaving two daughters. One died childless, so the estate passed through her sister Sarah, wife of John Bradyll of Portfield, to their son Dodding Braddyll, Whig MP for Lancaster 1715–22. Dodding's son Thomas Braddyll in turn died unmarried in 1776, leaving Conishead to Wilson Gale, his first cousin once removed, who changed his name to Wilson Gale-Braddyll. Throughout this period the building itself changed considerably.

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