Historic Description of Maxstoke Priory Ruins

Maxstoke Priory

Founded in 1336 as a Priory for twelve Austin Canons by Sir William Clinton (who altered in this way a previous foundation of a collegiate church here with a warden and five priests), led an unobtrusive existence till the Suppression, when it was valued at £87 a year clear. There were then seven canons and the Prior. It was Suppressed in 1536.

The remains are interesting if rather scanty. First, there is the gate house on the road – gabled, with a staircase at the angle on the inner side leading to what must have been a large upper chamber.

Then the Prior’s lodging (originally an inner gate house), converted into a farmhouse, and only accessible by the courtesy of the inmates. This had once a fine great chamber upstairs with a ceiling emblazoned with coats of arms engraved by Dugdale in his History of Warwickshire. In 1863 this was stupidly allowed to be taken down, but some of the panels (twenty-six out of sixty-four) were put up again in a downstairs room of the farm-house. They are heavily repainted and look quite new.

The only fragment of the church is the central tower. Parts of three sides are left, and it is evident that there was once a spire. This building is in a shaky condition. The last fragment is the west wall of the infirmary hall. This and the cloister buildings were on the north of the church. There is nothing else to be seen above ground, except the precinct wall, a good deal of which remains.

The little church of St Michael close by should be looked into, especially by those who like to see relics of eighteenth-century furniture. The pulpit and gallery are of this period. There is a fourteenth-century churchyard cross. Maxstoke Castle is someway off: it is inhabited and not accessible to visitors.

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