Horton Priory
Benedictine priory in Dorset, England, UK
Horton Priory was a priory at Horton in Dorset, England.
It was founded as a Benedictine abbey around 970 by Ordgar, Earl of Devon, or his son, Ordulph, and dedicated to Saint Olfrida, Wilfrida or Wulfthryth, the mother of Saint Edith of Wilton by King Edgar the Peaceful. In the early twelfth century it was reduced to priory status by Roger, bishop of Salisbury and made dependent on Sherborne Abbey.
At the Dissolution in 1539 Sherborne Abbey was surrendered to the king, and in 1547 it was granted to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. On Somerset's attainder it was granted to William Herbert, 1st Earl of Pembroke. The present Horton parish church, St. Wolfrida, was built on the site of the priory in the 18th century. No traces of the original priory remain.
Known Priors
* Hugh, occurs 1286
* John de Bradeford, occurs 1348.
* John Cosyn, occurs 1401.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5906925. Authority coordinates are 50.867, -1.959. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1539, 1547, 1286 and 1348.
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This entry incorporates text from “Horton Priory” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.