Syningthwaite Priory Farm, Bilton in Ainsty with Bickerton, North Yorkshire

Syningthwaite Priory Farm from the south.  The medieval refectory range forms the right-hand two-thirds of the building; the remainder was added around 1820 Yorkshire’s magnificent ruined monasteries are well known.  Fountains, Rievaulx, Whitby, Kirkstall and Roche Abbeys – to mention just a few – still impress with their soaring arcades, and give a vivid impression of the dominance of the church in medieval life.  Much less well known are Yorkshire’s nunneries, which were typically much smaller.  Some have disappeared, while others, converted into houses at the Dissolution, are largely concealed within later masonry. 

Syningthwaite: On the first floor a 12th-century round-headed window can be seen cut by a post-Dissolution 16th-century mullioned window.  The partition on the left is later still.
 Syningthwaite Priory Farm is of this kind.  The church has gone and all that remains is the refectory range, which opened off the south side of the cloister.  Built shortly after the nunnery was founded in 1155, it retains substantial 12th-century remains, including part of the laver, where the nuns would wash before eating in the refectory, an elaborate re-set doorway and a number of windows.  Inside there are still traces of plaster painted with thin red lines to imitate masonry joints.  Around 1500 the refectory, which was originally open to the roof, was altered to provide an upper floor.  The inserted ceiling is richly carved and tall mullioned windows were inserted on the south side of the range to light the new rooms. 

After the Dissolution Syningthwaite passed to the Wharton family.  Most of the complex was probably abandoned or demolished shortly afterwards, but the south range was altered again to serve as a house.  It never became the principal seat of the Whartons, however, and by the 19th century it was used as a farmhouse.  The main reception rooms and bedrooms were in a purpose-built block at one end, served by a kitchen in the medieval south range, but the room with the magnificent ceiling was parcelled up to provide a scullery, pantry and blacksmith’s forge.  Remarkably, little was changed in the 20th century, and so Syningthwaite remains unusually well preserved, offering a range of insights into the living conditions of Yorkshire’s medieval nuns.

Syningthwaite: The elaborate ceiling and the mullioned window beyond were inserted around 1500.  The fireplace on the left is probably contemporary, but was damaged in the 19th century when it was used as a blacksmith’s hearth The future of Syningthwaite needs to be carefully managed.  Some conservation work is needed and the future uses of the building must be considered.  Until recently little was known about the site, so working in collaboration with the Yorkshire Region of EH we have carried out a detailed investigation, clarifying the building sequence and identifying features of particular significance.  The resulting understanding will help to inform proposals for conservation, repair and re-use of this Grade I listed building.