Buckland Priory was established around 1167 in Lower Durston

Durston

Durston is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated on the A361 road north east of Taunton and south of Bridgwater in the Taunton Deane district. The parish lies on undulating ground between the lowest slopes of the Quantock Hills and the valley of the River Tone at the Curry and...

, Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

, England.

It was founded by William de Erleigh (or Erlegh) for Augustinian Canons. A local spring fed fishponds (or vivarium

Vivarium

A vivarium is a usually enclosed area for keeping and raising animals or plants for observation or research...

) and supplied the priory with water and drainage. The ponds were filled in by 1725.

The buildings burned down in 1234. The priory was later suppressed, and the estates given to the Knights Hospitaller

Knights Hospitaller

The Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of Saint John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta , also known as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta , Order of Malta or Knights of Malta, is a Roman Catholic lay religious order, traditionally of military, chivalrous, noble nature. It is the world's...

. Subsequently there was a priory of Canonesses of St. Augustine, and, in 1199 a preceptory of Knights Hospitaller, the Hospitallers' only house for women in England, who ceased to appoint preceptors after 1433.

Various endowments were made and by 1358 the estate consisted of 268 acres (1.1 km²) of arable land, and 42 acres (169,968.1 m²) of meadow.

The site of one of the buildings is now occupied by Buckland Farm a Grade II* listed building.