Grace Dieu Priory
The remains of the South Range of Grace Dieu Priory
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 Location within Leicestershire
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| Monastery information | |
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| Order | Augustinian: "The White Nuns of St. Augustine" |
| Established | 1239 |
| Disestablished | 1538 |
| Dedicated to | Holy Trinity and St Mary |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Rhosese (or Roesia) de Verdon |
| Site | |
| Location | Near to Thringstone, Leicestershire, England |
| Coordinates | 52°45′39.50″N 1°21′24.06″W / 52.7609722°N 1.3566833°WCoordinates: 52°45′39.50″N 1°21′24.06″W / 52.7609722°N 1.3566833°W |
| Visible remains | South range, chapter house, east end of conventual church - all to a height of not more than one storey |
| Public access | Yes: Free to enter. |
The Grace Dieu Priory was an independent Augustinian priory near Thringstone in Leicestershire, England. It was founded around 1235-1241 by Roesia de Verdon and dissolved in October 1538. It was dedicated to the Holy Trinity and St Mary.
The priory was founded c. 1239 by Rhosese (or Roesia) de Verdon. The priory was endowed with the manors of Belton, Leicestershire and "Kirkby in Kesteven" (Kirkby la Thorpe?), Lincolnshire; as well as the advowson of Belton Church. The priory was unusual in being independent of outside control. The nuns called themselves "the White Nuns of St. Augustine", and there is thought to be no other houses of their order in the country.
The priory was fairly large, having in 1337 sixteen nuns. It also had an attached hospital which cared for twelve poor people. The priory did, however, have some unusual practices: for example, the nuns were forbidden to ever leave the priory's precincts.
The priory escaped the first wave of dissolution of the smaller monasteries, but was finally dissolved in 1538.
Following the Dissolution, the site was granted to Sir Humphrey Foster who sold it to John Beaumont in 1539. He converted the priory buildings into a residence which remained within his family until 1684, when it was bought by Sir Ambrose Phillipps, a wealthy lawyer, who also built nearby Garendon Abbey. Sir Ambrose had most of the buildings pulled down, and by 1730 the remaining buildings were ruinous, with only two sections still roofed.
The priory passed through the Phillips and March families until 1833 when Charles March Philips gave the priory to his son Ambrose Lisle March Phillips, who assumed the surname "De Lisle". Ambrose constructed a new house in the Tudor-gothic style, known as Grace Dieu Manor, 300 yards (270 m) south of the priory ruins. The March Phillips de Lisle family owned the house until 1933, although their main residence was at the Hall they built at the former Garendon Abbey. Following the death of two of its heads in quick succession, the family needed to tighten its belt and so in 1885 moved out of Garendon and into Grace Dieu Manor. A return to fortune allowed the family to return to Garendon once more in 1907, however. Finally in 1964 Garendon Hall was demolished and the family returned to Grace Dieu for a final time, selling the house within a decade. Grace Dieu Manor then became a Catholic school. In 1972 the family moved to Quenby Hall, but following the collapse of the family cheese making business, the family has been forced to offer the Hall for sale (it has been for sale since 2012).
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