Norton Priory: Monastery to Museum

The Priory of St Mary was founded at Norton, Cheshire, in 1134, when the Augustinian canons of the Priory of St Bertelin, founded in Runcorn in 1115, were relocated to the site ‘at the request of Roger, bishop of Chester’. The priory was originally founded by William fitz Nigel, second baron of Halton, and moved to Norton by his successor, William fitz William. Its earliest buildings were of timber, probably erected to house both the canons and the vast army of workmen needed to build such a fine Romanesque monastery. By the end of the twelfth century, the stone buildings of the monastery were not only complete, but were being expanded to accommodate more members of the order. Despite the setback of a major fire in 1236, and the more general financial and social problems of the fourteenth century, Norton had attained the status of abbey by its end, and its abbot was a senior and much respected member of the Augustinian Order.