In 1190 thirteen of the canons migrated to form the first community of Cartmel Priory, now in Cumbria, which had been recently founded by William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke.

It was not a backwater, since in its latter years it had benefitted from the residence of its then prior, Thomas Wallashe, in the household of Cardinal Bainbridge, Archbishop of York, during his embassy in Rome (1509–1514), leading to grant of extensive papal privileges to the priory.

"[16] Recent archaeological and pictorial analysis of the extant remains reveals that they had been embellished by c. 1732, probably by Sir John Danvers, who is also likely to have been the designer of the associated formal gardens around the ‘pleasaunce’ known as Clack Mount.

Danvers added an Italianate tower, a barrel vault incorporating spolia, a faux garderobe turret and an internal arched buttress of brickwork (demolished since 2003) to create a pre-Piranesi ‘dungeon’.

[19] In 1925, the American newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst saw St Donat's Castle in the Vale of Glamorgan advertised for sale in Country Life magazine and cabled his English agent to buy it.

[20] For his project to enlarge the castle, he bought and removed the guest house, Prior's lodging, and great tithe barn of Bradenstoke Priory; of these, some of the materials were used to construct a banqueting hall, complete with a 16th-century French chimneypiece and windows.

[21] The demolition of the priory had been strongly opposed by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings, including a poster campaign on the London Underground.

[26] All that remains of the priory in the 21st century are its tower and undercroft, the latter being identified by English Heritage in its 1996–97 programme as being at risk and requiring emergency remedial works.