This area known as "Sunken Gardens" is thought to be the most historic place in Grange-over-Sands. Grange is thought to take its name from a French word "graunge" meaning "granary", an example of which was probably built here by black-robed Augustinian Canons of Cartmel Priory, a 12th Century religious house endowed by William Marshall. Until the dissolution of England’s monasteries in 1536, Priors of Cartmel imported supplies into the "graunge" through a harbour once sited close to the present Commodore Hotel. During "setting out" of these gardens in 1925, Mr. Benson, a landowner, discovered foundations of a large barn.