Cardigan Priory

Cardigan Priory (formally: The Priory Church of Our Lady of Cardigan; alternative: Cardigan Cell) is located in Cardigan, Ceredigion, mid-west Wales. Founded c.1110-15, it was served by a community of Benedictine Black Monks. The first records of it are dated 1164 when Rhys ap Gruffydd, Prince of South Wales, conquered Cardigan, and brought it again under Welsh rule, and by a grant confirmed the gift of the then existing Priory Cell of Cardigan to the Black Monks of St Benedict, of Chertsey Abbey.^[1] At a later time, the priory cell was dependent on Gloucester Abbey. The priory dissolved 1538, after which time, it was converted into a mansion and granted to Bisham, Berkshire, and subsequently to William and Mary Cavendish (1539/40). In 1922, it was converted into the Cardigan District and Memorial Hospital.