Life at the priory

There were never more than 12–15 canons living at Lanercost, who combined monastic life with pastoral care of local people and nearby churches. Following the Rule of St Augustine and wearing black habits (cloaks), the canons would have prayed to God in the church seven times each day, on behalf of the founder, his family and their descendants. The priory was dedicated to St Mary Magdalene, whose statue adorns the west front of the church. At some point it acquired a relic, said to be a piece of the belt or girdle of St Mary Magdalene, which would have attracted pilgrims. 

The priory buildings that survive today are only a small part of the monastic complex. It would have included a brewhouse, tannery, malt kiln, hay store, fishponds and a granary, as well as stables and other buildings for sheep, cattle and pigs. The entire precinct was surrounded by a wall, which still survives in places, with a single gatehouse containing a porter’s lodge. 

The canons were supported by a substantial number of staff, including bailiffs who administered the estates, a butler, a caterer, a cook, a fisherman and a mason, as well as two ‘clerks of the choir’, employed to help in the singing of services. In 1537 a total of 40 people worked at the priory.

Attacks by the Scots

The ambitions of King Edward I (reigned 1272–1307) to rule over Scotland were brought to a head when a Scottish alliance with France led to war in 1296. Monasteries on both sides of the border were exposed to attack. Lanercost suffered initially in April 1296, when the Scots encamped there and set fire to some of the monastic buildings. Late the following year the Scottish army led by William Wallace led raids into northern England and the priory was attacked again. 

There was worse to come. In 1311 a force led by Robert Bruce, King of Scotland (r.1306–29), descended on the priory and stayed for three days, ‘doing an infinity of injury’ and imprisoning the canons. The priory lands were repeatedly devastated during such incursions, and in 1318 the estates, once valued at nearly £75 a year, were found to be worthless and totally destroyed.

The priory was besieged again and ransacked in October 1346 by the Scottish army of King David II (r.1329–71). ‘They entered arrogantly into the sanctuary, threw out the vessels of the temple, plundered the treasury, shattered the bones, stole the jewels and destroyed as much as they could’, a contemporary chronicler wrote. These raids left Lanercost Priory with buildings to repair, valuable items to replace, stores pillaged and lands ravaged. 

Dissolution

The royal visit and repeated Scottish raids had left the priory greatly impoverished. Despite the king granting them the revenues from two additional churches, the priory was destitute and had to sell off much of its land. A tax return in 1379 recorded only a prior and four canons living there – probably all that its revenues could support – and in 1409 the priory appealed for help as the canons were ‘reduced to a low state and almost utter want’. 

Help eventually came from their patrons, the Dacres. In 1487 Sir Thomas Dacre (1467–1525) married Elizabeth Greystoke, heiress to the barony of Greystoke and to many other estates in northern England. This marriage made him rich, enabling him to support the priory, which was close to the family home at Naworth Castle, with lands and money. 

Even so, the priory remained poor. By the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries – the process whereby Henry VIII and his ministers closed down religious houses and seized their assets – its income was only £80 a year. As one of the smaller religious houses it was one of the first to be targeted, and it was closed in March 1537. At this time it was staffed by eight canons under the prior, together with the curate of the parish church and 40 lay staff. 

The cloister and refectory were stripped of their roofs, and the monastic buildings were mostly left to ruin. 

Family tombs

Like most monasteries, Lanercost served as a mausoleum for its founders and their successors – members of the Vaux, Multon, Dacre and Howard families. Many of their tombs still stand in the roofless eastern end of the church. 

The oldest known tomb, with fragments of an effigy, belongs to Roland de Vaux, illegitimate son of the nephew of Robert, the priory’s founder, who died in 1199. In the south transept is the elaborate early 16th-century tomb of Sir Thomas Dacre and his wife, Elizabeth Greystoke. In the north transept chapel is the tomb of his parents, Humphrey Dacre and Mabel Parr, carved with heraldry displaying the arms of their respective families. 

There were few family burials in the later 16th to 18th centuries but the Howard family, who purchased Lanercost from the Crown in 1869, revived the tradition. George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle, had his parents, Charles and Mary, buried here, as well as his son Christopher and infant daughter Elizabeth, who died in 1883. She is commemorated by a terracotta sculpture of a sleeping infant by Sir Edgar Boehm. The gravestones of George himself and his wife, Rosalind, are set in the floor.