Blyth, Nottinghamshire

The priory church of St. Mary and St. Martin is one of the oldest examples of Norman architecture in the country. It was part of a Benedictine monastery founded in 1088. This priory was founded by Roger de Builli of Tickhill Castle, one of William the Conqueror's followers.

St Mary and St Martin’s Church, Blyth.

The founder and later benefactors endowed Blyth with lands, money and churches. It was staffed at first by monks from the Mother House, Holy Trinity Priory at Rouen France. In 1286 Thomas Russel had to be returned to Rouen because of his intolerable conduct and also John de Belleville, as the climate did not suit him. There are other records of the unruly conduct of French monks.

During a visitation of the priory in 1536 it was alleged that five of the monks were guilty of grave offences and it was surrendered. George Dalton, the Prior, received a pension of twenty marks, and this seems to have been the only pension awarded. The net annual income at the date of the surrender was £180. (equivalent to £110,000 in 2021).[2]

After the Dissolution the east part of the church was demolished and a tower built at the west end of the nave.

See St Mary and St Martin's Church, Blyth for more information.

In 1603 Sir Edward Stanhope sold the Blyth estate to Robert Saunderson, of Gilthwaite, Rotherham.

In 1635 the 490-acre estate was sold by the Saunderson family to John Mellish, a London merchant. His son Edward, a merchant in Portugal, returned to England in 1671 and in 1684 commissioned the demolition of the old priory and the building of Blyth Hall immediately north of the church. The hall stood at approximately 53°22'45.39"N 1° 3'48.46"W.[3] He was High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire for 1692–93 and died unmarried in 1703, leaving the property to Joseph Mellish, his cousin's son. It descended in the Mellish family until 1806, when it was sold to Joshua Walker, the son of an ironmaster from Rotherham.[4]

Joshua's son and heir, Henry Frederick Walker (born 1807), was High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire for 1852–53. At the end of the 19th century the hall was bought by Francis Willey, 1st Baron Barnby, a Bradford wool merchant. He was High Sheriff for 1908–09 and was succeeded by his son Vernon Willey, 2nd Baron Barnby, who was the MP for South Bradford.

The hall was demolished in 1972 and the site is now occupied by a housing estate.[5]

On the village green is the former Leper Hospital of St John the Evangelist, said to have been built by the Knights Hospitaller of St. John of Jerusalem. It was refounded in 1226, and was being used as a school in 1695.[6]

Blyth is situated near to Hodsock Priory.

Hodsock Priory