Thicket Priory is situated not far from the city of York, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough and is built on the site of a 12th Century Cistercian Monastery of nuns which was destroyed during the Reformation. There is evidence of a devotion to 'Our Lady of Thicket' dating from this time.

Thicket has been home to Carmel since 1955, when the Carmelite community from Exmouth moved here. Exmouth Carmel was founded from Notting Hill Carmel in 1926, at a time of many foundations and new vocations. By the 1950s it had become clear that the site of the Carmel in Exmouth was no longer suitable and the sisters began to look for a new home.

Mother Mary of St. John - the Prioress at the time - felt drawn to making a foundation in her native Yorkshire, which in medieval times had been a Carmelite stronghold. After much fruitless searching Mother Mary of St. John and her companions were taken to see Thicket Priory, a large manor house near York which was for sale.

Though the sisters knew they would never be able to afford to buy the house with its 23 acres of grounds, they loved it immediately. The house belonged to Lord and Lady Dunnington-Jefferson who generously sold the house to the sisters, taking only the proceeds from the sale of Exmouth Carmel.

In 1969 Thicket made a foundation of it's own at Wood Hall near Leeds