Legend has it that Kirkham was founded in remembrance of l'Espec's only son who had died nearby as a consequence of his horse being startled by a boar.

It has a wide arch of continuous mouldings with a crocketed gable running up to the windows, with sculptures of St George and the Dragon on the left, and David and Goliath to the right.

During the Second World War, the priory was used by the military in training for what became the largest seaborne invasion in history, the D-Day landings which took place on 6 June 1944.

Troops made use of the high wall of the Western Cloister in training with scrambling nets, which they would subsequently use to make their way from the main transport ships into the smaller landing craft during the invasion.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill and King George VI visited the priory in secret to monitor preparations, an indication of Kirkham's significance as a training ground.