More information : [ST 2578 3956] Somerset Farm Institute on site of BENEDICTINE PRIORY [G.T.] [ST 2585 3956] Burial Ground [G.T.] (1)
Cannington Priory, now Somerset Farm Institute, is a large Elizabethan mansion said to be the site of a Benedictine Nunnery founded 1138 and suppressed 1536 (4). Leland (a) refers to it as 'hard adnexid to the east of the parish church'. The buildings, mainly 16th-17th cent., are arranged around an irregular courtyard which cannot, therefore, represent the cloisters of a Nunnery. There is an early 18th cent. octagonal chapel now used as a lecture room. (2). (2-4)
The present buildings are worthy of note, although no monastic remains are immediately apparent from the outside. (See G.Ps. AO/64/270/4 & 5). The Burial Ground contains early 19th century graves from the time when the house was re-occupied by Benedictine nuns (d). (5)
Prior to development for a health centre in Mill Lane, Cannington, at ST 256395, a piece of walling was examined which contains a late Medieval gateway. It seems likely that the wall represents the boundary of part of the Medieval precinct of the Priory. (6) |