Editing Gisborough Priory (section)

===Priory church===
[[File:T.homas Girtin Guisborough Priory, Yorkshire 1801.jpg|left|thumb|The ruins of Gisborough Priory in 1801, painted by [[Thomas Girtin]]]]
The remains of the priory church are dominated by the eastern gable wall of the [[presbytery (architecture)|presbytery]] that still stands to its full height. Its great east window is regarded as one of the finest examples of late-13th-century church architecture. The design is so close to that of the eastern arm of [[Ripon Cathedral]], which was built around the same time, that it is thought to have been modelled on Ripon's design. The window's [[tracery]] has disappeared, as has its sill, but from the stubs and surviving fragments it can be deduced that it had seven major lights (the glazed openings in the window). At its centre was a great circle of tracery filled with [[trefoil]]ed lights. The main gable of the east wall is flanked by massive [[buttress]]es capped with gables and octagonal [[pinnacle]]s. A similar pair of pinnacles top the main gable, flanking a window of unusual design; a bracket projects from the lower lobe to support a statue (no longer present), possibly of the Virgin Mary, to whom the priory was dedicated.<ref name="Coppack9-11">{{harvnb|Coppack|1993|pp=9–11}}</ref>

Little remains above ground of the rest of the priory, but much can be deduced from the surviving stonework. In its final form the priory church had a [[nave]] of eight bays and a [[Choir (architecture)|quire]] and presbytery of nine bays, with a total length of {{convert|107|m|ft|order=flip}}. The survival of the east wall allows us to deduce that the ridge line of the roof stood {{convert|29.6|m|ft|order=flip}} above ground.<ref name="Coppack7">{{harvnb|Coppack|1993|page=7}}</ref> The presbytery's arcades were supported by eight clustered shafts, the bases of which are still visible, with [[Capital (architecture)|capitals]] carved with naturalistic foliage. The [[clerestory]] and [[triforium]] were combined into a single arch with the main arcade below. The presbytery's high vault was executed in stone with bosses decorated in red and white paint and gold leaf, traces of which were still visible when several of the bosses were found in the 19th century. The eastern bay of the presbytery was divided into several chapels and the remnants of [[parclose]] screens are visible on the main aisle's north and south [[respond]]s. The main altar would have stood a short distance to the west, behind a tall screen.<ref name="Coppack12">{{harvnb|Coppack|1993|page=12}}</ref>

At the angle of each [[aisle]], a [[Stairway#Spiral and helical stairs|spiral staircase]] – still visible on each side of the surviving east wall – gave access to a passage inside the walls and to secondary stairs within the angles of the main gable enabling access to all parts of the building for maintenance and cleaning without requiring scaffolding. Nothing remains of the north or south transepts, which extended on the north side beyond the present boundary wall into the graveyard of [[St. Nicholas's Church, Guisborough|St Nicholas's Church]].<ref name="Coppack12" />

Several burials (presumably of high-ranking benefactors and clergy) were made within the priory and 19th-century archaeologists found stone coffins during excavations. They are visible against the east wall, but their original location was not recorded. Two centrally placed grave slabs are visible below the east window.<ref name="Coppack12" /> The priory once housed the [[Brus cenotaph]], a memorial to its founders erected in 1521. It was removed in 1540 and dismantled. Most of its parts were recovered and reassembled in the 19th century, and the reconstructed cenotaph is displayed in Saint Nicholas' Church next to the ruins.<ref name="Coppack13">{{harvnb|Coppack|1993|page=13}}</ref>

The priory church housed a shrine to the Virgin Mary which one of the most significant Marian shrines in the north, along with others at [[Walsingham]], [[Lincoln, England|Lincoln]], [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire|Scarborough]], [[Jesmond]] and [[Carlisle, Cumbria|Carlisle]].<ref>{{harvnb|Webb|2000|page=103}}</ref> Although it was destroyed during the Reformation along with the priory, it was revived in 1949 by Father Arthur Mercer, Guisborough's first Roman Catholic parish priest for 400 years, and is housed in the town's St Paulinus Church.<ref>{{harvnb|Santoro|2011|page=425}}</ref>