Chapel at Brainshaugh Priory. Photo Northumberland County Council, 1971.

Chapel (in ruins). (1)

The remains of this Chapel consist of walls as shown on OS. The general thickness of these walls is approximately 32ft. The north wall is the most well preserved, standing approx 14ft high. A doorway some 6ft high still exists in the south wall, together with a sacramental niche near the east wall; which is about 5ft high. (2)

Nuns or cannonesses. Premonstratensian at Guyzance. Dissolved or moved elsewhere before AD 1500. (3)

Premonstratensian Cannonesses at Guyzance. Priory founded c.1147 and dissolved before 1500. Founded by Richard Tison for nuns apparently at the times when he gave the church here to Alnwick Abbey c.1147. The prioress is mentioned in 1313. No order is mentioned, but it has been presumed that the house was Premonstratensian as it was controlled by the abbots of Alnwick. The nunnery was extinct before 16th century. (4)

...remains of the chapel consist of a rectangular building 61ft long by 15ft 8ins wide including work of 12th to 14th centuries intermixed with modern walling. In the middle of the rectangle is some broken masonry which may represent either the west wall of a short church, to which has been added a nave with south aisle, or the whole foundations may represent the original church with chancel arch dividing it into two parts. North wall contains 12th century bricked up doorway, west wall has 13th century windows and south wall remains of similar window, a 14th century window and piscina of 13th-14th century date. (5)

Scheduled ancient monument. (6)

Description in T4(2) correct except that there is also a door with a semi-circular arch in the south wall. The walls constituting the remains of this chapel rise to a maximum height of 3.5m and are of rough dressed stone with rubble filling.
There appears to have been two phases of building, but what form the chapel originally took could not be ascertained on the available evidence. The remains of two pillars suggest some form of arcading along the western part of the south wall.
Lying outside the west wall are the remains of a fluted pillar and a portion of medieval grave cover.
The extant remains (as shown on plan) are in good condition. The floor of the chapel is paved with modern flags and there is a 19th century grave slab at the western end.
The modern enclosure in which the remains stand has been used until quite recent times as a burial ground. To the south and south-west of this enclosure the ground is uneven, suggesting buried foundations. These earthworks may indicate the site of the conventual buildings of this priory but excavation will be necessary to prove this. (7)

Site will require assistance when surveyed. (8)

(Subsequently published) Priory (Premonstratensian). (9)

Condition of chapel unchanged. Published survey (1:2500) correct. As suggested by F1 the uneven ground to the south and south west may indicate the site of the conventual buildings of the priory, but there are no coherent remains to merit survey action. (10)

NU208031. Building remains visible of priory. Visible on infra-red line scan. (11)(12)

Church or chapel. Nave 11th or 12th century; chancel 13th or 14th century. (13)

Scheduled.(14)

Guyzance (Brainshaugh) Priory of St Wilfrid, founded c1147-52 for Premonstratensian Canonesses, it probably became extinct at the Black Death. The Priory later became a cell for the Premonstratensian Abbey at Alnwick, it was dissolved in 1539. (15a)

NU 209 032. Guyzance (or Brainshaugh) Chapel near Acklington. Scheduled No ND/82. (15b)

General association with HER 4505. (15)