Blyth Priory was founded in 1088 by Roger de Busli, as a house of Benedictine Monks.

[1] It was an alien house (one dependent on a foreign mother-house), being an offshoot of St Katherine's Abbey in Rouen, France.

It has been suggested that the priory was established with a view of its brethren ministering to those wounded in the jousts and performing the last rites to such as died, but this is open to question inasmuch as it was not until more than a century after its foundation that the tournament field was licensed.

[2] The monastery buildings lay on the north side, separated from the church by the cloisters and garth, or open area.

Following Dissolution, the eastern end of the church, and the monastic buildings to the north of the cloisters fell into ruins and were never repaired.