St Bees Priory

St Bees Priory

St Bees Priory Church
Monastery information
Full name	The Priory Church of Saint Mary and Saint Bega
Other names	Priory Church of SS Mary and Bega
Order	Benedictine
Established	Ca. 1130
Disestablished	1539
Mother house	St Mary's Abbey, York
Diocese	Carlisle
People
Founder(s)	William Meschin
Site
Location	St Bees, Cumbria, England
Visible remains	Nave, tower crossing and transepts; still used as the parish church. Monastic chancel; formerly the theological college, now used as parish rooms
Public access	Yes

Coordinates: 54°29′38″N 3°35′36″W / 54.493777°N 3.593461°W / 54.493777; -3.593461

St Bees Priory is the parish church of St Bees, Cumbria. There is evidence for a pre-Norman religious site, and on this a Benedictine priory was founded by the first Norman Lord of Egremont William Meschin, and was dedicated by Archbishop Thurstan of York, sometime between 1120 and 1135.

From sculptural and charter evidence the site was a principal centre of religious influence in the west of the county, and an extensive parish grew up with detached portions covering much of the Western Lakes.

The Priory was dissolved in 1539, and since then the buildings have been the Anglican church of St Bees parish, and is now a grade I listed building.

There is sculptural and place-name evidence for the existence of a pre-Norman religious site; though no existing buildings from that time. The St Bees place-name is derived from "Kirkeby Becok" - the "Church town of Bega", which was used in the 12th Century. St Bega is a mysterious figure from pre-Norman Britain, and is said to have been an Irish princess who fled across the sea to St Bees to avoid an enforced marriage. Legend has it that she then lived a life of piety at St Bees. The most likely period for her journey would have been sometime in the thirty years after 850, when the Vikings were settling Ireland.

The continuance of the cult of St Bega following the arrival of the Normans is recorded in the Register of the Priory by the swearing of oaths on the "Bracelet of St Bega". This relic was touched as the means of taking a binding oath; oaths are recorded up to 1279, and offerings to the bracelet were made as late as 1516.
In the graveyard is a cross shaft dating from the 10th Century, showing Viking influence, and from the same era is a cross shaft of the Cumbrian spiral-scroll school, now in the church, both of which testify to this being a pre-Norman religious site.
Pre-Norman parish boundaries suggest that St Bees had considerable pre-Norman influence in the west, and it has been suggested that St Bees was a "minster church" serving the west coast, but there is no firm evidence.