More information : [ SJ 4943 1261 ] Friary [ GT ](Site of) Dominican
[ SJ 4945 1266 ] Friary Burial Ground [ GT ](Site of) (1)
Knowles and Hadcock (a) listed the House of Dominican Friars, of some thirty friars, as founded before 1232, and dissolved in 1539. In a partial list of houses in the four visitations of the Dominican province, the Shrewsbury house is definitely allocated in the mediaeval list. Knowles & Hadcock refer to Little, Gumley and Palmer. Owen and Blakeway (b) say that a writ of 1222 granted to the preaching friars the use of the king's "stone which lies in Severn", for the building of their church at Shrewsbury; and that they must therefore be among the earliest to settle in England, if, as Dugdale has it, the first of their order arrived in 1221. There is a reference in 1279 to their gate in the town wall. When the site of the friary was levelled in 1823, according to Owen and Blakeway, three "cellars or subterraneous apartments" all 31ft. long but of differing widths, were laid open.
Clay (c) lists an anchorite at the Dominican Friary. Two of the sons of Edward IV were born in the house of the black friars at Shrewsbury; the first of these, Richard, Duke of York, being the younger of the two princes murdered in the Tower of London. This information is included in an historical account of the Black Friars (with reference to ancient documents, etc.) by Palmer. Palmer also states that many 'persons of rank' killed at the Battle of Shrewsbury 1403, were buried in the Dominican churchyard. In 1801 when the upper part of the Friary was levelled several skeletons were found (d). In 1934 two skeletons were found in digging foundation. The ground is full of human bones 'close to the Water Gate' (e). (2)
The sites of the Friary and its burial ground are occupied by a lawn, a garden and buildings. (3)
Excavations on the site of the Friary in 1973 uncovered foundations which were probably part of the south wall of the choir. The wall was constructed of red sandstone with tooled stone to the interior and having a rubble infill.
Inside the wall, to the north, the interior of the choir had been robbed down to the natural clay and, although three graves were found intact, others, including a double grave, had been robbed or disturbed.
Further walls were found abutting this wall, but excavations of these were limited.
Finds included a large amount of Medieval pottery, bricks, possibly from a kiln, fragments of white sandstone window moulding, and various 18th/19th century finds. (4) |