Gisborough Priory (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Giseburghe; Guisborough; St Mary's Priory

In the civil parish of Guisborough.
In the historic county of Yorkshire.
Modern Authority of Redcar & Cleveland.
1974 county of Cleveland.
Medieval County of Yorkshire North Riding.

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ61691608
Latitude 54.53631° Longitude -1.04976°

Gisborough Priory has been described as a probable Fortified Ecclesiastical site.

There are no visible remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Comments

This supposed licence is not enrolled although it it is mentioned (but not referenced) in several sources, including the English Heritage guide book, although sometimes dated 1375. Tellingly the VCH does not mention this supposed licence. The Norman great gate survives, although ruined. This is clearly not defensive and does not have a portcullis or drawbridge, the precinct wall survives only in fragments. This is too long to be defensible. The prior was granted an licence for his mansum of Giseburgh in 1344, but the wording of this suggest a separate building from the Priory which Gatehouse tentatively identifies as a lost house at War Fields (see Gisborough Castle and Priors House). It is just possible the supposed licence of 49 Edward III is a misreading of 18 Edward III although it is difficult to see how such a misread might happen in either arabic or roman numerals.
Note the modern town is spelt Guisborough but the abbey maintains an older spelling Gisborough.

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1007506, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number 23223
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1139765 , 1329543
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 28304; 1314510.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- English Heritage official site
Books
- Salter, Mike, 2001, The Castles and Tower Houses of Yorkshire (Malvern: Folly Publications) p. 40
  Jackson, M.J., 1996, Castles of Durham and Cleveland (Carlisle) p. 32-3
  King, D.J.C., 1983, Castellarium Anglicanum (London: Kraus) Vol. 2
  Page, Wm (ed0, 1974, VCH Yorkshire Vol. 3 p. 208-23 online transcription
  Page, Wm (ed), 1923, VCH Yorkshire: North Riding Vol. 2 p. 352-3 online transcription
  Whellan, T., 1857, History and topography of the city of York and the North Riding of Yorkshire (T Whellan and Co) Vol. 191-3 online copy
  Ord, J.W., 1846, The history and antiquities of Cleveland p. 170 online copy
  Grose, Francis, 1785 (new edn orig 1756), Antiquities of England and Wales (London) Vol. 6 p. 103-9 online copy
Guidebooks
- Coppack, Glyn, 1993, Gisborough Priory, Guisborough, Cleveland (English Heritage)
  Gilyard-Beer, R., 1981, Gisborough Priory (D.o.E)

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

Data >	PastScape		Scheduling	Listing	I. O. E.
Maps >	Streetmap	NLS maps	Where's the path	Old-Maps
Data/Maps >	Magic	V. O. B.	Geology	LiDAR	Open Domesday
Air Photos >	Bing Maps	Google Maps	Getmapping	ZoomEarth
Photos >	CastleFacts	Geograph	Flickr	Panoramio