Kirklees Priory

About

Kirklees Priory was a Cistercian nunnery whose site is in the present-day Kirklees Park, Clifton near Brighouse, Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England. It was originally in the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Dewsbury. The priory dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St James was founded by Reiner le Fleming, Lord of the manor of Wath upon Dearne, in 1155 during the reign of Henry II.

The priory gives its name to the Kirklees metropolitan district council, formed in 1974 and including the towns of Huddersfield, Dewsbury and Batley, though the priory is just outside the district's boundary itself and is in neighbouring Calderdale. Nuns from the priory were involved in scandals between 1306 and 1315. Archbishop of York William Greenfield wrote to the prioress about rumours concerning Alice Raggid, Elizabeth Hopton, and Joan Heton.

Rumours implied they had been seeing religious and secular men in the nunnery and their behaviour led to the house being considered one of disrepute. The priory was not dissolved by the Dissolution of the Lesser Monasteries Act in 1535, but continued for worship and hospitality. Cecilia Topcliffe was the prioress, and the convent consisted of the nuns who had been...