Black Ladies Priory was a house of Benedictine nuns, located about 4 km west of Brewood in Staffordshire, on the northern edge of the hamlet of Kiddemore Green.

Medieval documents, particularly in the reign of Henry III frequently refer to the nuns or the priory of Brewood without indicating which community is meant.

[3] A partial seal surviving from 1538 shows a seated Madonna and Child in a canopied niche with the inscription: [s]igillum commune nigrarum monialium de bre[.

Although there is no positive evidence for the founder, its existence is attested mid-century in a deed by which Ralph Bassett, a local landowner, grants the nuns small areas of land at Pattingham and Hardwick.

Alexander de Bransford, the parson of Broome who died around 1205, had been presented by the previous manorial lord, Richard of Ombersley, whose father Maurice was reckoned the founder of the church.

The prioress successfully maintained that the king had acquired the advowson when he confiscated the manor and had handed over this potentially valuable asset to Black Ladies, although it was not mentioned in the charter of 1200.

[17] In 1204, William de Rudge charged them 4 marks and an annual rent of three pence to consolidate and extend their holding, exchanging land he had given them earlier.

In 1272 the nuns received lands at Broomhill, just east of the priory, from the heirs of Ralph de Coven,[18] as well as a rent in Brewood and another worth 16d.

In 1204 King John gave alms amounting to two marks each to a number of small communities in the Midlands, including both Brewood and Blithbury.

[20] Henry III made a number of grants "to the nuns of Brewood," without specifying whether the Benedictines of Black Ladies or their Augustinian neighbours were meant.

[23] However, a grant of 8 September 1241 was specifically to the "black nuns of Brewood:" one mark so that the sisters could redeem their chalice, which was in pledge[24] – an indicator of the poverty of the community.

[27][28] In 1291[29] Pope Nicholas IV granted an indulgence to all who would travel to Black Ladies to celebrate four Marian festivals and the church's anniversary there.

[4] However, in the first decades of the 14th century the nuns were still poor enough to pursue a convoluted dispute with the vicar of Brewood over who should receive tithes on the wool of animals not owned by them but grazed on their land.

On 16 October 1346, while campaigning in France at an important stage of the Hundred Years' War, Edward III licensed the prioress and convent of Brewood to appropriate the church of Rode in Somerset, where they already held the advowson.

[40] He forbade disbursements of pensions, liveries and corrodies – that is incomes paid in cash, clothing or food and lodging – unless his express permission was first sought.

[42] A number of landowners were recorded as contributing small alms for the upkeep of the nuns – the largest donor being Sir John Giffard of Chillington Hall, who gave 2s.

The amounts involved are still paltry – far below the threshold of £200 net set for dissolution of the lesser monasteries under the Suppression of Religious Houses Act 1535 and it was listed as such in an official schedule.

[40] Northburgh froze admissions to the priory and forbade the prioress taking bribes from prospective members of the community – which presumably had happened to this point.

At Easter of that year Prioress Alice Swynnerton was accused, with two others, of taking by force two oxen, valued at 40 shillings, the property of Clement of Wolverhampton, at Horsebrook.

Bishops were forced to intervene three times in the 15th century – in 1442, 1452 and 1485 – to appoint a prioress because of prolonged vacancies, although the nuns were supposed to elect their own head.

There was considerable interest in the site from local landowners – especially from Edward Littleton[60] of Pillaton Hall, near Penkridge, who built his family's fortune through a career of exploiting leases and purchases of ecclesiastical lands.

They included three bells in the church tower, a silver chalice, three spoons, one horse, a wain and a dung cart, together with the furnishings and fittings of the brewery, cheese loft and other buildings.

[27][65] However Legh then wrote to Thomas Cromwell, enclosing the letter about Giffard's lease of the property and pointing out that Littleton too had been given a firm promise that it would be his.

Ultimately Giffard emerged as the victor and in February 1539 he was sold the site, watermill, demesne lands, church and churchyard, steeple of Black Ladies, worth £7 9s.

"[73] The present house visibly incorporates considerable portions of the Tudor and Jacobean structures erected by the Giffards over the century and so after the Dissolution.

[76] The continuing religious importance of Black Ladies beyond the English Reformation derives from Thomas Giffard's commitment to Catholicism when England returned decisively to a Protestant path, early in the reign of Elizabeth I.

The Giffards became leaders of Catholic Recusancy in the region and stayed true to their faith throughout the vicissitudes of the Reformation, the English Civil War and the Penal Laws.

[78] It lay to the north of the house, connected by a passageway, and a witness in 1846 considered it to pre-date the main structure, apparently built from masonry of the convent.

It is thought to have sustained leg damage from a sword stroke during a search of White Ladies' Priory by Parliamentary soldiers during the escape of Charles II.

The statue appears to be in a baroque style typical of the early to mid-17th century, making it likely it was once part of the Giffards' chapel at Black Ladies, rather than of the priory: there is no record of such an image at the latter.