About thirty years after the Norman Survey, Geoffrey, the sheriff, bestowed the tithes of Biscopham, upon the newly founded priory of St. Mary, in Lancaster, being incited thereto by the munificent example of Roger de Poictou. In this grant no allusion is made to any church, an omission which we should barely be justified in considering accidental, but which would rather seem to indicate that the edifice was not erected until later. The earliest allusion to it is found in the reign of Richard I., 1189—1199, when Theobald Walter quitclaimed to the abbot of Sees, in Normandy, all his right in the advowson of Pulton and the church of Biscopham, pledging himself to pay to the abbey ten marks a year during the period that any minister presented by him or his heirs held the living.[120] In 1246 the mediety of Pulton and Biscopham churches was conveyed to the priory of St. Mary, in Lancaster, an offshoot from the abbey of Sees, by the archdeacon of Richmond; and in 1296 the grant was confirmed to the monastery by John Romanus, then archdeacon of Richmond, who supplemented the donation of his predecessor with a gift of the other mediety, to be appropriated after the decease of the person in possession, stipulating only that when the proprietorship became complete the conventual superiors should appoint a vicar at an annual salary of twenty marks. At the suppression of alien priories the church of Bispham was conveyed to the abbey of Syon, and remained attached to that foundation until the Reformation of Henry VIII. The original church of Bispham, subsequently to the Norman invasion, was built of red sandstone, and comprised a low tower, a nave, and one aisle. A row of semicircular arches, resting on round, unornamented pillars, supported the double-gabled roof, which was raised to no great altitude from the ground; whilst the walls were penetrated by narrow lancet windows, three of which were placed at the east end. The pews were substantial benches of black oak. In 1773 this venerable structure was deprived of its flag roof and a slate one substituted, the walls at the same time being raised to their present height. During the alterations the pillars were removed and the interior thoroughly renovated, more modern windows being inserted a little later. There is a traditional statement that the church was erected by the monks of Furness, but beyond the sandstone of which it was built having in all probability come from that locality, there appears to be nothing to uphold such an idea. Over the main entrance may still be seen an unmistakable specimen of the Norman arch, until recent years covered with plaster, and in that way retained in a very fair state of preservation.