Eustachia de Say and her son Osbert FitzHugh gave the church located at Westwood to
Fontevraud Abbey, in the
Loire valley, where
Henry II of England, his wife Queen
Eleanor of Aquitaine and their son
Richard I (the Lionheart) are buried. Soon afterwards, a small priory was erected at Westwood, dedicated to the Blessed
Virgin Mary, for six
Benedictine nuns. Over the centuries the convent grew until it ultimately numbered eighteen sisters. A group from Westwood moved to
Amesbury Priory subsequent to its being refounded in 1177. In 1460, Elizabeth Norton is named as prioress of Westwode, Worcs, in a legal dispute. The last prioress, Joyce Acton, received at the
dissolution an annual pension of ten pounds, on 11 March 1537. After the dissolution
Henry VIII granted Westwood, with its demesne lands, to Sir
John Pakington and in the reign of Elizabeth Westwood House was built on the property as a banqueting house. When the Pakington family seat in the adjacent village of
Hampton Lovett was burnt down during the
English Civil War they moved to Westwood. ==Notes==