Finchale Priory

Finchale Priory

Finchale Priory on the bank of the River Wear
Monastery information
Order	Benedictine
Established	1196
Disestablished	1535
Mother house	Durham Priory
Diocese	Durham
People
Founder(s)	Bishop Hugh Pudsey
Important associated figures	Godric of Finchale
Site
Location	County Durham, England
Visible remains	remains of 12th century chapel, foundations
Public access	yes (English Heritage)

Finchale Priory (pronounced finkle) sometimes referred to as Finchale Abbey was a 13th-century Benedictine priory. The remains are sited by the River Wear, four miles from Durham. It is a Grade I listed building.

There are some remains of the early 12th-century stone chapel of St John the Baptist, the site of Godric of Finchale's burial, built some time around the end of Godric's life. Some of the temporary buildings, erected for the first prior and his monks sent to establish the Priory some twenty years after Godric's death, still exist. The monastic complex was built in the latter half of the 13th century, with alterations and additions continuing for the following three hundred years.

There are many excellent examples of heavily decorated capitals on the original arcade columns, tracery in the filled-in nave arches of the church, and on the south wall is a double piscina and two carved seats of the sedilia.

The buildings and immediate grounds are now managed by English Heritage, with the surrounds converted into Finchale Abbey Caravan Park – an award-winning eco village project set up to sustainably manage development in the area.

The site and immediate area is one of significant juxtaposition between traditional and modern. Entry to the site is through an automated barrier (closed at 5:30pm). The caravan site has many modern luxuries and the southern approaches are a working farm – facts much lamented by some. Yet, this is still an isolated site, with its dead-end road (the site is blocked to the north by steep hills on the far banks of the Wear) and distance from any current homebuilding projects.

Godric came to live on the eventual site of Finchale Priory in the early twelfth century, creating a hermitage dedicated to St John the Baptist. Godric’s biographers recorded that he lived an ascetic life on this site for 50 years, living and sleeping outside and rejecting expensive cloth and plentiful food. It is said that Godric slept on the ground with only stones and branches as his furniture. Godric’s life was first recorded by a monk of Durham, thought to be named either Nicholas or Reginald. Godric’s last years were marred by extreme sickness, perhaps a result of his difficult life-style. For almost a decade before his death on 21 May 1170 Godric was confined to his bed and cared for by monks of Durham. He was initially buried in Durham but his remains were eventually moved to the church at Finchale.