The site of an Augustinian priory founded in the late 12thc. near Ulverston on the Furness peninsula, about 8 miles east of Furness Abbey. A neo-Gothic mansion now covers the site.

This capital was found by the author by chance in overspill from a collapsed section of perimeter wall, near a temporary car-park on the right side of the priory entrance drive, on the evening of 24 May 2014 and photographed the following day. Given the chance circumstances leading to its discovery, it is likely that this piece has never been identified by scholars. It is clearly ex-situ. While there is other worked stone present here, no other medieval sculptured pieces – of any date – were visible in the wall or anywhere else on the site. More material may survive buried in the perimeter wall and in its continuation in the field beyond; the latter was inaccessible.

The site was originally founded as a hospital after 1160, but made into a priory by Augustinian canons in the 1180s, and dedicated to the Virgin in 1188.

It is tempting to imagine that this piece originated from the priory church, and that it indicates that at least part of the structure remained substantially unaltered up to the Dissoution, but of course this assumption is impossible to prove. One can, however, say more about its date. Given that Conishead may have been founded in 1160, although not dedicated as a priory until 1188, it presumably dates approximately from the 1160s-1170s, as its form would have become obsolete shortly after c. 1180.

The capital is broadly similar in form to a piece in pink sandstone in the museum at Furness Abbey (EH). The directors of the International Meditation Centre based in the neo-Gothic mansion on the site have been alerted to the find, and it is hoped that it will be formally reported and conserved.