Bridlington Priory in Bridlington, Yorkshire, United Kingdom | Priory

Welcome to Bridlington Priory. Bridglington, United Kingdom. Bridlington Priory was founded in around 1113AD by Walter de Gant, Lord of the Manor of Hunmanby, for Augustinian Canons Regular. Built on the site of a Saxon church, the monastery was one of the earliest and largest Augustinian houses in the country. When complete, the building was over 400ft long and 75ft wide, with transepts 150ft long. Above the central crossing stood a magnificent tower, somewhat taller than the present south-west tower, surmounted by a corona not unlike that at Newcastle Cathedral. Evidence suggests that it was planned in the 15th century to extend the west towers rather like Beverley Minster; it is unfortunate that this work on Bridlington Priory was never carried out.

A very wealthy monastery (at the time of the dissolution, it had an annual revenue of £547) it owned land stretching from Blubberhouses in the north, and Askham Richard in the West Riding, down to the Spurn Peninsula. This wealth was no doubt helped by the number of pilgrims who travelled to Bridlington to visit the shrine of St. John, a former Prior who had been canonised in 1401.

St John of Bridlington is also known as John Thwing, John of Thwing, John Twenge, and John Thwing of Bridlington. He was born to a distinguished landowning family in 1319, at Thwing in the Wolds, about 9 miles west of Bridlington. He studied at Oxford from the age of 17 before returning to Yorkshire and entering the convent of Augustinian canons at Bridlington in 1340. He held several posts in St. Mary's abbey before he became prior reluctantly in 1362. He highly recommended the study of the Gospel of Saint John as a source for information and inspiration on the Gospel life. He died of natural causes in 1379.  Pope Boniface IX made John a saint in 1401, the last Englishman to be sainted before the Reformation. St John of Bridlington was commended for the integrity of his life, his scholarship, and his quiet generosity.