I grew up around Penwortham - and I've only just realised where the huge Priory was 100 years ago

I grew up around the Penwortham area - I went to nursery in Kensington Avenue, I went to Priory High School, I got married at St Mary’s Church and my first jointly-owned home was in Meadway.

Having been so familiar with the 1930s roads and architecture in this area of Higher Penwortham, I can scarcely believe it was so different just a few generations ago, and that where handsome houses now stand in Hollinhurst Avenue and Priory Crescent, there was once a huge, turreted mansion, with history dating back to William The Conqueror.

I had actually always thought that it used to stand where the high school is now, but recently discovered it was very close to St Mary’s church.

While the mansion was demolished in 1925 to make way for a housing estate, parts of the house do still remain - it is believed that a door is still in use in the Hollinhurst Avenue area, and the old Lodge, which once stood on Penwortham Hill, can easily be seen on the corner of Tolsey Drive and Moor Lane in Hutton, where it was moved to in 1912 and has been turned into a small home.

The road names nearby - Monks Walk, Abbotsway and Priory Crescent to name a few - also reflect the area's heritage, and the local secondary school, Priory Academy, not only takes the name but also shows the house's design in its emblem.

I went to the area around St Mary’s Church to take a look at how the land now lies, and I have to admit I felt rather eerie, imagining the enormous, imposing property that used to be there.

Take a look at my video to see what the area looked like before a centurty ago, and how it is today.

The history

Penwortham Priory was first a Benedictine priory and, after the Dissolution of the Monasteries, a country house in what was the village of Penwortham. Before 1086, William the Conqueror gave this area of Lancashire to his relative, Roger the Poitevin. Roger gave land to the Benedictine Evesham Abbey and a small daughter cell was built at Penwortham, starting in 1075. The priory, dedicated to Saint Mary, had no independence from Evesham but functioned until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1535.

Once seized, the priory and its lands were sold to the Fleetwood family at a price of £3,088. The Fleetwoods built a mansion on the site which took the name of Penwortham Priory. The family continued to live there until 1749. Ownership then passed first to the Aspinall family, and then to the Rawsthornes.

Major alterations occurred in the first part of the 1800s, which culminated in the house being hugely expanded through the work of architect George Webster, who also worked on Samlesbury Hall. Penwortham Priory became a massive gothic mansion, complete with mock battlements and corner turrets.

By the 1920s it is believed that the house had become dilapidated, especially after the First World War. Already Already in 1912 the Lodge had been taken down and rebuilt in Moor Lane, Hutton. The house itself was finally demolished in 1925 to make way for housing.