More information : (SP33977870) White Friars Church [NR];
(SP33987868) White Friars Monastery (remains of) [NR];
(SP33987864) Cloister Gate (site of) [NR].(1)
White Friars Church, (site), 1342-1557.(2)
Cloister Gate, (site). Originally the main entrance to White Friars Monastery. Erected 1350, destroyed by bombs in 1940.(3)
The Carmelite Priory of the White Friars, founded in 1342, had conventual buildings disposed around a large cloister, to the North of which stood the church dedicated to St Mary. The latter was acquired by the city corporation in 1543, five years after the Dissolution, at about the same time that the remainder was acquired by John Hales. The church was in disuse until 1572 when it was demolished. The former cloister was ca.100' square, the East side bounded by the existing range which has short projecting wings at each end. These represent all that is left of the two-storeyed North and South ranges enclosing the cloister. On the West side there may have been no buildings other than the cloister alley. At the SW angle was a gatehouse giving access to the SW alley. C19th drawings show it to have been a square, vaulted structure with remains of an upper storey. It is now covered by a road embankment.
The church was a cruciform building, 303' long with an aisled nave of nine bays and an unaisled chancel of six bays. The transepts were of shallow projection, the South transept adjoining the North cloister alley, and perhaps communicating with it. There are indications that the central tower, originally shorter on the E-W axis than the N-S axis, was later rebuilt on a square plan.
The existing East range is 150' long divided longitudinally, the western half containing a stone vaulted cloister 12' square, the stonework being of exceptionally fine workmanship. It has been suggested that former monastic buildings existed on the South side of the cloister. In the East range are two, long, vaulted rooms of C14th date, between which is what is thought to be the westernmost bay of the chapterhouse. The whole upper floor of the range was structurally undivided, and is thought to have been the dormitory. The whole building was considerably altered by Hales and his successors.
Excavations were undertaken in the area of the church from 1961-4. The six-bay choir, 97' by 30' internally, was of one building phase throughout, ca.1343-50. Irregular resonance passages were found beneath the floor, but there was no trace of acoustic pots. The nine-bay preaching nave was 147' by 67.5' internally, including the aisles, the aisle bays being 16.5' square, and probably a single build, ca.1350-1400. There was a doorway and possible porch on the East wall of the North transept. A pilaster buttress to the West of centre on the North wall of the transept, which was perhaps
originally intended to be the full width of the North aisle, marks the end of the first building period since the NW wall of the transept abuts it.
The NW corner of the cloister garth was exposed, the garth being 102.5' square. The West range did not appear to have been double, but it was hard to tell since any trace of an internal wall had been removed by the building of a wall in Elizabethan times.(4)
Excavations from 1968-1970 demonstrated that the West cloister was a double range, although the construction of the outer range was probably never carried out. The North transept porch of the church originally had two bays with an East door, but was later partially incorporated into the main church structure to the North and East. A doorway East of the South choir stalls was also revealed, and gave access to a narrow freestanding walkway leading to a rectangular chamber East of the double East cloister range from where a stair rose to cloister level. This is interpreted as a night stair.(5,6)
The sacristy, chapter house, and domestic buildings at the East end of the church were excavated in the mid 1970's. The friar's cemetery appears to lie to the East of the church, and six graves were found in the presbytery. The rectangular chapter house measures 15.0m by 7.4m. No flooring remains in situ, and there were no graves
found in the East part of the building to add to the eight which had been found in the West part of the building in 1973. The sacristy had substantial foundations with square angle buttresses at the East end. SE of the cloister was a rectangular building, 12.0m x 10.0m, divided into two unequal parts by a sandstone wall running N-S. The East room appears to have been used as either a slaughter-house or stables.(5)
The Carmelite Priory of the White Friars was founded at the unusually late date of 1342 by Sir John Poultney, a wealthy citizen of London and who was Lord Mayor of London on five occasions. The church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. In 1348, Lord Bassett of Drayton bequeathed 300 pounds for the enlargement of the church. In 1506, a bequest of 20 marks was made to rebuild the cloister. The house was surrendered to the King on 01-Oct-1538 by Hugh Burnby and 13 friars. (8)
(See SP37NW42 for the precinct gateway, SP37NW43 for a possible monastic building, and SP37NW34 for the post-Reformation history of the site.) |