Syningthwaite Priory

{{Short description|Former religious house in Yorkshire, England}}

{{Use British English|date=September 2022}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}

Syningthwaite Priory was a priory in Bilton-in-Ainsty in North Yorkshire, England, the refectory of which has been converted into a farmhouse.

Syningthwaite is the site of the Cistercian convent of St Mary, founded {{circa|1150–1160}} by Bertram Haget and suppressed in 1535,{{cite web |title=Genuki: BILTON: Geographical and Historical information from the year 1890, Yorkshire (Ainsty) |url=https://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/ARY/Bilton/Bilton90 |website=www.genuki.org.uk |access-date=15 September 2022}} having been heavily in debt in the early 16th century. At the Dissolution the priory housed nine nuns, the prioress, eight servants and other labourers.{{NHLE|desc=Syningthwaite Priory Farmhouse |num= 1150361|grade=I|access-date=15 September 2022 }} The priory site is enclosed by a moat and includes a Chapel Garth.{{cite web |title=Sinningthwaite [sic] Priory |url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=54709&resourceID=19191 |website=www.heritagegateway.org.uk |access-date=15 September 2022}}

The refectory range of the priory survives as the rear range of a farmhouse. The rest of the building is post-Mediaeval, and the front range dates from the early 19th century. It is built of limestone with some brick, and has a roof of pantile at the rear and grey slate on the front range. There are two storeys, a front range of three bays and a three-bay wing at the rear. The front range has a central doorway with a fanlight, and sash windows with splayed voussoirs. In the rear wing is a round-arched doorway with a chamfered surround, colonettes with weathered capitals, leaf motifs in the moulded spandrels, and a hood mould with carved stops. The windows include a three-light mullioned window with Tudor arched lights and a hood mould, sash windows, a horizontally-sliding sash, and a fire window.{{NHLE |num= 1150361|desc= Syningthwaite Priory Farmhouse, Bilton-in-Ainsty with Bickerton|access-date= 6 March 2024}}{{cite book| last =Leach| first =Peter| last2 = Pevsner | first2 = Nikolaus | author2-link = Nikolaus Pevsner | series= The Buildings of England| title =Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North| publisher =Yale University Press | year =2009 | location =New Haven and London |isbn =978-0-300-12665-5}}