Once established, the Priory became the home of several of Roger de Aske’s own daughters. Most of the nuns would have been from the families of landowners and merchants. Their day was divided by the offices, or times of prayer, beginning with Prime at dawn and continuing through Matins, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None and Vespers to Compline. Each day also included a mass, said by the resident priest, and time spent listening to a portion from the Rule of St Benedict.

The care of the house and the farm was in the hands of the steward and a host of servants, among them porters, milkers, cooks, stable hands and farm workers. The demesne, or home farm, would supply their day-to-day needs and the nuns enjoyed a degree of comfort, supported by the rents as well as gifts from their families. In times when travel was slow and arduous, the hospitality afforded by the Priory was welcome and the nuns, in turn, appreciated the news brought by pedlars and merchants from Richmond and beyond. Each year, the fleeces from the large flocks would have been sold to travelling merchants, sometimes from as far afield as Italy. As a defence against unfair trading, the nuns’ steward would have kept one special ‘stone’, known to weigh 14lbs, to check the measure given by the visiting purchaser. There was only one fleece from each sheep in a year, but the ewes were also valued for their milk, used to make cheese. Ale was home-brewed.