The walk from Boscobel House to the White Ladies Priory was sign posted as one mile away . We had a choice . Trust the sign . They are sometimes under egged and the walk turns out much further . That was coupled with the heat , a pair of new shoes being broken in and the horse flies which had a taste by this time for my blood . Like vampires they swooped . In the end we decided to drive down what was a very narrow country lane . Far too narrow for Gabby had in her today . And no parking . Just a rough piece of ground with enough room for a mini sized car .
We parked up Ziggy that it was indeed further than a mile as the path zig zagged across the fields . Maybe a mile as the crow flew but not a mile by my walking times . It would have taken a lot longer to get here and feet would have been sore .On top of that I would probably have looked pock marked had I walked amongst those pesky flies . They us along
the dark and gloomy path that led to the priory . We virtually had the place to ourselves . To be fair there was probably a reason for this as there was little to see . None of the impressive East and West windows . This would have been a disappointment had we been expecting something more grand .
So what the story of the White Ladies setting up home here ? It was in the middle of nowhere. That would have been central to their thinking of peaceful living and being nearer to God and away from civilisation . However it was not a large plot with great remains . It was modest and that was perhaps being kind . The locals had stripped off the lead from the roof over the years . They had reduced the walls to barely 10 foot above us . There were no grand entrances just the footprints of buildings footings that stood no longer in Staffordshire but over the border in Shropshire .
There were no information boards but the internet provided us with some background to this priory that once was known as the Priory of St
Leonard at Brewood . It housed a settlement of Augustinian canonesses who wore white religious habits . The origins and foundation history was not known . The history did tend to suggest with what little evidence remained that the priory was known to be in existence in the 12th century . The ruins or what remained looked 12th century. As we stood in front of what looked like a porch we wondered what function it had . What function the canonesses played in society and in the life of the village. The local families and those from further afield supported the priory especially after miracles had been performed in the name of St Leonard after who the building had been named . The priory benefitted from royal generosity from KIng John who visited a number of times and was entertained by the ladies presumably . The priory owned land in Nottinghamshire which included the church at Tibshelf . A church we probably passed by without a thought when we travelled along the Tibshelf Road many many times . The rectory rent was £1 and this went to the priory . Tibshelf had been quite lucrative for the priory 40/- a
We walked into the building or what remained and the shape seemed simple . A cross shape built in the local sandstone . Five bays visible and a chancel of three bays . It was hard looking at the roofless hulk to the open sky to imagine what might have been inside but broadly speaking we could see no sign of great transepts nor chapels . There was the remains of a couple of finely carved round headed Romanesque arches and it appears there was a cloister but little remained . After Moissac and its cloisters it was hard to imagine that this could anywhere close to the French example we had just seen . Perhaps we get spoiled when we have visited fine examples and then fall up on this simple version where little or nothing survives..
Still it was peaceful to stand there and think about nothing in particular. Life here would perhaps have been a lot more simpler than it is today .
