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The History of the Augustinian Priory with Prior Morins Annals

Manager - Hugh Garrod, Priory Church Historian

His Team

David Preest, The Priory Annals Medieval Latin Translator

Rev. Stephen Williams The Priory Annals Interpretation

David Preest will publish the entire Priory Annals when they are fully translated. The Annals written in the 1200s give us not only the details of local Priory affairs, but also national and international news, including crusades. Publication date 2013.

Hugh with his team will;

• Research new information about Dunstable Priory from the Annals, Charters and Tracts and publish, in book form, DVD and on this website. The full Annals will only be available from David Preest.
• Research and update the History of the Priory which is already on the Priory Church website  (1100-1540)
• Write a script for the audio tour of the Priory Church.
• Recruit and train new Priory Church Guides

To date;

David has finished the second draft of the Annals, and Stephen has started work on this draft. The information found so far, has opened up new avenues to be explored, in particular the amount of land and churches that the Priory owned across six counties.

We have learned that the Priory had a vineyard in Dunstable and another one in Leicestershire. The Priory owned and managed lead mines, 1200 sheep in Derbyshire, mills, granges and tithe farms. Here in Dunstable there was also a herbarium. We know the price and amount of wool that they were selling each year from the Derbyshire flocks and those in the Chilterns.

Two years ago when we first thought about this project we believed that the Priory had a dozen or so Bedfordshire villages and churches, our latest count was in excess of 100 places. Researching these  places has now become a project in its own right and you will find the details under ‘The Priory’s Lands and Churches’.

Hugh is making many trips to the British Library to research the Priors, especially Richard de Morins; Bishop Hugh II of Lincoln; Alexander Nequam; Geoffrey de Gorham and the play of St. Catherine; St Fremund; Sir Nigel Loring; Dunstable's Fraternity of St. John the Baptist, including the Fayrey Pall; the Annulment of 1533 and the Eleanor Cross. Information which is relevant to other teams will be passed over to them.

An advert has been placed in local magazine to recruit new guides for the Priory Church

Author Jean Yates

Priory History

Hugh Garrod

David Preest

Rev. Stephen Williams