Priory

Ther Priory is currtently owned and managed by DMBC. Entour has organised a series of clean ups on the site.

Priory History

"According to Allport: “The Priory never was what its name implies, although it was closely connected with the church.  It appears to have been the priest’s house before the present vicarage was built (but now in Castle Avenue).  IN making alterations to the house, numerous human remains, which had evidently been there for centuries, have been unearthed from time to time.  In making a cellar under the house in 1868, cart loads of human bones are said to have been dug up.  The date when the Priory was built seems lost in antiquity; but the Priory Manor (not Priory Manor in Wellgate) or lands belonging at ont time to the Priory at Lewes, came into the possession of a Mr Tudor, who rebuilt the old house and named it the Priory’.  IN 1826, Tudor sold the estate to Mr Thomas Badger of Rotherham.  It then passed through various hands before being acquired by Conisbrough born Godfry Walker.  This man owned much land in Conisbrough, and amongst his business interests were the limestone quarries off Doncaster Road.  He took an active part in public and village life, being a senior magistrate and church warden.  On his death in Harrogate on 13th July 1908, his widow gave the ‘Priory’ to the Sheffield General Infirmary as a convalescent home for children.  Allport says: ‘Most of the children come from Sheffield and to many of the poor little things the change must seem like a foretaste or paradies’.  During the Second World War the property was utilised for Civil Defence purposes.  In recent years however, the building has been used as office accommodation by Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council.”

Quote from June and Tony Greathead (1990) ‘Photographs of Old Conisbrough’, p.28