Barnstaple Priory

Nearby to the north across the River Yeo was the Benedictine Pilton Priory of St Mary the Virgin, a cell of Malmesbury Abbey,[3] founded slightly later, between 1107 and 1199.

[4] Juhel endowed it with part of the demesne land of Barnstaple Castle as well as with the manors of Pilton and Pilland, members of the barony, which were contiguous and situated immediately to the north across the River Yeo.

[5] The grant within Pilton included the wood, waters and meadows, with fishing rights on the rivers Taw and Yeo.

Also granted was Barnstaple town mill at which the inhabitants were required by their tenure to grind their corn, a valuable source of revenue to the Priory.

Juhel stated in his foundation charter that he intended himself to enter the priory as a monk and hoped "quickly to pass to the glory of my maker".

Old Vicarage, Barnstaple, built originally in 1311 "at the entrance of the Priory". The surviving building, entirely re-built "at his own great charge" by Rev Martin Blake (d.1673), Vicar of Barnstaple, (with 19th c. additions and restorations) today occupies the same site [ 1 ]
Arms of Barnstaple Priory: Gules, a bend or in chief a label of three points argent [ 2 ]