Sandwell Priory
Remains of the south chapels of the priory church.
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 Location within West Midlands county
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| Monastery information | |
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| Full name | The Priory of St Mary Magdalene of Sandwell |
| Other names | Communis Sancte Marie Madalena de Sandwelle |
| Order | Benedictine |
| Established | c. 1190 |
| Disestablished | 1525 |
| Dedicated to | Mary Magdalene |
| Diocese | Diocese of Coventry and Lichfield |
| Controlled churches |
Ellesborough St Clement's (now All Saints') Church, West Bromwich (farmed from Worcester Priory after 1230) |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | William Fitz Guy of West Bromwich |
| Important associated figures |
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| Site | |
| Location | Sandwell Valley Country Park |
| Coordinates | 52°31′11″N 1°57′53″W / 52.5198°N 1.9648°WCoordinates: 52°31′11″N 1°57′53″W / 52.5198°N 1.9648°W |
| Visible remains |
Low walls indicating the plan of the priory church. |
| Official name | Sandwell Priory, a Benedictine monastery |
| Designated | 2 July 1974 |
| Reference no. | 1017763 |
| Public access | yes |
Low walls indicating the plan of the priory church.
Sandwell Priory was a small medieval Benedictine monastery, near West Bromwich, then part of Staffordshire, England. It was founded in the late 12th century by a local landowner and was only modestly endowed. It had a fairly turbulent history and suffered considerably from mismanagement. It was dissolved in 1525 at the behest of Cardinal Wolsey – more than a decade before the main Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII
The founder of Sandwell Priory was William, son of Guy de Offeni. Guy is known to have held West Bromwich around 1140 and was still alive in 1155. William was in charge by 1166 and was succeeded by his son, Richard, by 1212, although he may have survived a little longer.
William Fitz Guy was a principal tenant Gervase de Paynel or Pagnell, who held the lordship of Dudley, his grandfather having married Beatrice, daughter of William Fitz-Ansculf the great territorial magnate who held much of the Midlands after the Norman Conquest. The promotion of monasticism was evidently a shared interest of lord and tenants. When Gervase founded Dudley Priory around the middle of the 12th century as a daughter house to Wenlock Priory, Guy de Offeni, his wife Christiana and son William donated to it the church at Wombourne for the salvation of their own souls.
It seems that a hermitage stood at the site, next to the well which gives the place its name, for some time before the priory itself was established. However, it was William who firmly established a monastery there: a house of Benedictine monks dedicated to St Mary Magdalene. The foundation date is generally given as 1190, although it could have been at least ten years earlier. Gervase's confirmation of William's grants is the main surviving evidence of the foundation and original endowments of Sandwell Priory.
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