Nunnery, Douglas
| The Nunnery | |
| Isle of Man | |
|---|---|
 The Nunnery | |
| Location | |
| Grid reference: | SC37087538 |
| Location: | 54°8’54"N, 4°29’45"W |
| History | |
| Built 1823 | |
| For: | John Taubman by John Pinch & son |
| Country house | |
| Information | |
| Owned by: | University College isle of Man |
The Nunnery is an estate outside Douglas on the Isle of Man, named after the priory which stood on the site until the Henrician Reformation.
The Nunnery is to be found on Old Castletown Road, Braddan. In 1999, the estate was acquired for the Isle of Man International Business School, now part of the University College Isle of Man.[1]
History
Monastic era
The Priory of Douglas was a community of nuns, possibly established in the reign of Rǫgnvaldr Guðrøðarson, King of the Isles (1187-1226).
In 1536, during the Reformation, the Prioress of Douglas, Margaret Goodman, married Richard Calcot, Comptroller of the Isle of Man.
The monastery was suppressed by King Henry VIII in 1540, as part of the wider Dissolution of the Monasteries. The estate fell to the Crown, but Richard and Margaret Calcot retained a house on the site.
Nothing remains of the monastery.[2] In 1610, King James I granted the Nunnery estate to the Earl of Derby, who was also Lord of Mann.
After the Dissolution
After dissolution, the buildings were acquired by Richard Calcot, Comptroller of the Isle of Man, and the hisband of the last Prioress. The family occupied a house on the site until their descendants, the Heywoods, sold it to the Taubmans in 1776.
A new mansion was built for John Taubman in 1823. It was designed by both John Pinch the elder and his son, John Pinch the younger, of Bath, Somerset, and built in the "Strawberry Hill" Gothic Revival style.
The only surviving monastic building, St. Bridget's Chapel, served as a coach house for centuries, but it was restored to its original use as a place of worship in the 1880s.[3] The building was used in this manner until 1998, when new owners evicted the congregation, and it was deconsecrated as a chapel.[4]
The mansion remained in the possession of the Taubman family: George Taubman Goldie was born here in 1846. This remained the case until the estate was acquired by the Isle of Man International Business School in 1999 to serve as their site of operations, following which the Isle of Man University Centre was established there in 2008.
The Nunnery also served as the home of Culture Vannin until its relocation to St John's in 2016.[5]
Outside links
References
- ↑ Tutt, Patricia (2013). An Introduction to the Architecture of the Isle of Man. Ramsey, Isle of Man: Lily Publications. pp. 286. ISBN 978-1-907945-10-6.
- ↑ Midmer, R (1979). English Mediaeval Monasteries (1066–1540): A Summary. London: Heinemann. p. 130. ISBN 0 434 46535 6.
- ↑ Manx Monastic Establishments
- ↑ The Nunnery, Douglas
- ↑ 'Culture Vannin applies for new base', Manx Radio, Tuesday, June 30th, 2015 6:26pm
- David E. Easson, Medieval Religious Houses (Scotland), with an Appendix on the Houses in the Isle of Man (1957).
- Cowan, Ian B.; Eassom, David E.: Medieval Religious Houses (Scotland), 2nd ed. (1976) ISBN 0-582-12069-1
