St Katherine's Priory
..was a Benedictine Nunnery founded in 1159 and dissolved in 1539. The surviving 2 storey building (thought to date from C13 is Grade II star listed, with much character, and several original features. Both the buildings and the beautiful grounds are maintained by volunteers.
Stoke Hill Community Association
…has been in existence since 1978. It organises a number of events at St Katherine’s Priory and hosts weekly and monthly activities. The association is run entirely by volunteers.
http://www.stkatherinespriory.co.uk/
St Katherine's Priory St Katherine's Road, Exeter EX4 7JY
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/www.stkatherinespriory.co.uk/
Exeter Memories Polsloe Priory, also known as St Katherine's Priory, was a Benedictine nunnery, founded around about 1159 and dissolved on 19 February 1539. It was one of only three priories in Devon to be founded by nuns. The original priory consisted of four main buildings around a quadrangle or cloister – a licence had been obtained for a burial ground when it was founded. The Priory was dedicated to St Katherine of Alexandria. The priory relied on rent from land in Polsloe, Cokesputt near Payhembury, Tudhays in Colyton and others, one of which was in Somerset, with an estimated income in 1635 of £164 8s 11¼d.
http://www.exetermemories.co.uk/em/_buildings/polsloepriory.php
Devonshire Association Orme, N. "Polsloe Priory" Volume 147, 2015, pp. 185–212
Polsloe Priory near Exeter was the earliest house of nuns to be founded in the diocese of Exeter, in about 1160. It belonged to the Benedictine Order. Since the eighteenth century, the foundation has been ascribed to the magnate William Brewer (died 1226), but this can be disproved on chronological and other grounds, and the credit is to be given to a group of people of moderate wealth, led by the contemporary bishops of Exeter. The article goes on to enumerate the priory’s endowments, which consisted of a scattering of lands and churches in Devon and Somerset, and to trace its internal history down to the Reformation. Archaeological research has revealed the priory’s location and plan, together with the nature it its surviving remains, while the daily life of the nuns can be glimpsed from injunctions delivered to the house by Bishop Stapledon in 1320. Polsloe became liable for dissolution in 1536 but paid a large fine to be spared, in spite of which it shared the fate of the remaining monasteries in Devon in February 1539.
https://devonassoc.org.uk/publications/transactions/abstracts/#147
Wikipedia Polsloe Priory, also known as St Katherine's Priory, was a Benedictine priory for women (a nunnery) in Devon, England. It was founded in around 1159 on land to the east of Exeter, on a site that is now part of the city's suburb of Polsloe. At the time it was the only religious house for women in Devon, but two others were founded later: at Cornworthy and Canonsleigh Abbey. The first prioress of whom any record survives was Avelina in 1218. Amongst the holdings of the priory was the Church of St Mary, Marston Magna in Somerset.
In common with most other Catholic institutions, it was dissolved by Henry VIII, in 1539, even though it had paid a fine of £400 for exemption from the First Suppression Act of 1536. At dissolution it had 14 nuns, including the prioress and subprioress.
Most of the buildings have been demolished, but one remains, built of the local red sandstone and believed to date from around 1320. English Heritage have designated it a Grade II* listed building. As of 2016 it is used by the local community association for occasional events, having passed from private to City Council hands in 1934.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polsloe_Priory
Historic England St Katherine's Priory is one of only three nunneries in Devon and Cornwall. The two storied standing structure which constitutes the remains of part of the west claustral range has a high state of preservation in which all of the medieval layout either remains visible or can be reconstructed. Within the structure there are two wooden screens, one of which dates to c.1300, and the other contains timber of that date. St Katherine's is one of the few nunneries to have undergone an extensive archaeological excavation and fabric survey, and the information resulting from that work has been used to reconstruct a complex developmental sequence which has added considerably to an understanding of aspects of this class of monument. The history of the priory is closely connected with the history of the City of Exeter and the cathedral, and some of the documentary sources resulting from this relationship provide a more general insight into the location of nunneries and women in medieval thought and society.
https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1017595
