Bolton Priory

The church has its historical origins in an Augustinian priory founded at Embsay, five miles to the west of the village of Bolton (as it was then known), in 1120. The community moved to Bolton in 1154 and started the construction of the present building. The east end of the church was an oblong building, parts of which are still seen in the walls of the original chancel, that may have been built over a former Saxon chapel. Round this structure a short chancel, tower and transepts were built, and a conventional cloister was added to the south west of the south transept. The full nave was completed in the middle of the 13th century. The north wall of the existing cloister was used as the…

There are two crypts in the church. One, under the vestry in the north-west corner, is still intact. The second, now under the organ, contained the coffins of the Clapham family which were stored in a vertical position. It was subsequently filled with bones found in the 1866 restoration and sealed. The seat of the Clapham family was nearby Beamsley Hall, where some 10 generations of the family lived. A stone altar in the north aisle was preserved at the time of the Dissolution by using it to cover the second of the crypts mentioned above. When the floor was re-laid in 1867 it was placed in the floor of the west tower, and subsequently moved into the church where for nearly a century it was…

The sloping ground to the north and east of the church forms the graveyard, which runs about halfway to the River Wharfe. The view downstream from the Priory, the view of the Priory from the opposite bank and the Strid Woods which surround the river as it runs north towards Barden Tower, have always attracted artists, including Turner, Girtin, Landseer, Royle, the Brontes and Wordsworth Prior Moone's grave, marked by a chalice and paten, is in the crossing. There is a memorial to Lord Frederick Cavendish (brother of the 8th Duke of Devonshire) who was assassinated in Phoenix Park, Dublin. It was donated by workers in the Bolton Abbey estate and is said to be of white freestone from Bolton…