SITES AND REMAINS OF RELIGIOUS HOUSES
LLANTHONY PRIORY. (fn. 1)
The priory of
Llanthony Secunda occupied a low-lying site
south-west of the town, bounded on the west side
by the lane to Hempsted and on the south side by
the Sud brook. The short period which elapsed
between the gift of the priory's site in 1136 and
the dedication of its church the following year,
and the fact that a return to the mother house in
the Honddu valley (in the later Monmouthshire)
was envisaged, (fn. 2) suggests that the original buildings were of a temporary nature. By the late 12th
century, as architectural fragments found in 1846
indicate, (fn. 3) there was a substantial church at the
site. In 1301 the church, described as having four
bell towers, was burnt and the expense of its
rebuilding presumably contributed to the priory's
financial problems in the early 14th century.
William of Cherington, prior 1377–1401, rebuilt a
chapel of the Trinity, the cloister, and a granary.
In 1518 the church was said to be ruinous. (fn. 4)
In 1540 the site of the priory was sold by the
Crown to Arthur Porter (fn. 5) and it descended with
his Llanthony manor estate until 1898. (fn. 6) The
Porters and their successors, the Scudamores,
used part of the buildings as a residence until at
least 1697, (fn. 7) and during the 18th and 19th centuries the site was used as a farmstead. (fn. 8) In 1974 the
site, subject to various tenancies and used partly
for industrial purposes, was bought by the city
council, which took possession in 1984 and began
some clearing and landscaping work. (fn. 9)
Substantial remains of the priory, including
part of the church, survived until the time of the
siege of Gloucester in 1643. A tower, which could
have been used by an enemy force to overlook the
city, was pulled down before the siege, (fn. 10) and the
buildings were further damaged during the siege
as the city's defenders retaliated against royalist
artillery sited there. (fn. 11) The church had probably
been demolished completely by c. 1710 when
Atkyns described the tombs of the de Bohun
family as heaps of rubbish under the sky. (fn. 12) In the
late 1790s the Gloucester and Berkeley canal was
dug through the east side of the precinct,
revealing foundations of a building c. 30 ft. wide,
apparently part of the church. (fn. 13)
The surviving buildings and ruins are of the
15th century and the early 16th. Along the west
side is a length of brick precinct wall with the ruins
of a stone gatehouse. On the north side are the
ruins of a large stone barn, which had two
transeptal entrances and in the past was sometimes
taken for the ruins of the church. (fn. 14) South of the
barn, on a north-south alignment, ran a long range
of stone building with a timber-framed upper
storey; an addition, described in 1853 as a modern
cottage, was later made at its south end. (fn. 15) Before
1882 the north part of the old range was demolished, (fn. 16) and the cottage was rebuilt. Other buildings, of two storeys, survive from a range which
ran along the south side of the site and aligned on
foundations discovered further east during the
widening of the Gloucester and Berkeley canal and
the building of a new wharf in 1852. (fn. 17) The priory
church, of which the western end presumably still
underlies the north-eastern part of the site, probably had a southern cloister, though that is
unlikely to have connected with the surviving
buildings to the west and south, which are more
likely to have been lodgings or part of the farmery.
ST. OSWALD'S PRIORY.
The minster (later
priory) of St. Oswald, founded c. 900 A.D. by
Ethelfleda of Mercia, (fn. 18) occupied a site north of the
town, bounded on the north-west by the Old
Severn, where remains of the precinct wall survived in the early 19th century, (fn. 19) and on the
north-east and east by Water Street and Half
Street. Detailed excavations (fn. 20) at the site of the
church have shown that the 12th-century arcade,
all that remained visible of the priory in 1984, was
an insertion representing only one of a long series
of alterations, a number of which pre-dated the
Norman Conquest.
The first-period church, some of the stonework
of which survives in the ruin, is assumed to be
that built c. 900 A.D. It had a rectangular nave and
chancel, north and south porticus, entered not by
arches but by doorways, and a western apse. The
last feature was presumably an imitation, on a
small scale, of some Carolingian churches. Built
into the first church were fragments of two 9th-century cross shafts (fn. 21) and two others were found
near the site in the 19th century. (fn. 22) All the cross
shafts may have been on the site before the church
was built, or they may have been brought there
with the many Roman architectural fragments
which were re-used in the first church. In the
second period a crypt or burial vault was added at
the east end of the church; it had independent
foundations and four internal piers, supporting an
upper chapel. At the same time a crossing-wall
was added in the nave; it was decorated with
red-painted figures and foliate ornamentation.
The crypt and its chapel may have been intended
to house the relics of St. Oswald, which were
translated to Gloucester in 909 A.D. (fn. 23)
In the 11th century the crossing-wall was
thickened, probably to take a tower. The new wall
made use of stone taken from elsewhere in the
building, including grave covers, with 10th-century foliate ornament, and a decorated
doorhead. (fn. 24) Later the crossing-arch was widened,
the door to the north porticus was replaced by a
new wide arch, and clasping butresses were added
to the crypt. At a later period the chancel was
widened to align with the nave walls.
After the Norman Conquest there was a major
rebuilding, dated by coins to 1086 or later. The
north porticus was demolished and its arch
blocked, a north transept was added further east,
and a crossing-tower raised on the site of the old
chancel. At the same rebuilding, or possibly
earlier, the chancel was placed above the crypt. In
the early 12th century, presumably part of work
carried out by Thurstan, archbishop of York
1119–40, a north aisle was added, and in the mid
12th century, possibly in connexion with the
conversion of the minster to a priory of
Augustinian canons, (fn. 25) an arcade was inserted
between the nave and aisle. Later, a pointed arch
was inserted between the aisle and north transept,
and a sunken-floored chapel was added on the east
side of the transept to provide covered access to
the Anglo-Saxon crypt. In the 13th century nave
and aisle were extended by two bays and there was
some rebuilding of the claustral buildings; the
king gave timber for building at the priory in
1234, and in 1256 he made a grant of protection
for those preaching in aid of the works there. (fn. 26)
After the Dissolution, the site of St. Oswald's
Priory was sold by the Crown in 1540 to John
Jennings (later knighted), (fn. 27) but the north aisle and
transept of the church remained in use as the
church of St. Catherine's parish. (fn. 28) The arches of
the arcade were blocked and windows and a door
inserted into the blocking; the nave was partly
demolished and allowed to become ruinous. Most
of the surviving church was pulled down in
1655–6. (fn. 29) Parts of the domestic buildings of the
priory, south-west of the church, were incorporated in a dwelling house, later known as the
Priory. (fn. 30) The Priory was the home of the Revd.
John Newton c. 1770, (fn. 31) and later it was a private
school. (fn. 32) The house, which comprised substantial
ranges of buildings of stone and timber framing, (fn. 33)
was demolished in 1823 or 1824. (fn. 34) North of the
remains of the priory church a new church for St.
Catherine's parish was built in the years 1867–8
and demolished in 1921. (fn. 35)
BLACKFRIARS.
The house of Dominican
friars, founded c. 1239, (fn. 36) occupied a site west of
Southgate Street, bounded on the south side by
the town wall. The building of the friary, which
was aided by numerous grants of money and
materials from the Crown, (fn. 37) evidently continued
over many years; the church was not consecrated
until 1284. (fn. 38) A plot of land for enlarging the
buildings was granted in 1365. (fn. 39)
In 1539 the buildings of the friary were sold to
Thomas Bell, the wealthy Gloucester capper and
clothier, and his wife Joan. (fn. 40) Bell put the claustral
buildings to use for his trade, (fn. 41) and by 1545 he had
remodelled the church as a dwelling house,
known as Bell's Place. (fn. 42) Bell, who was knighted,
died in 1566 and Joan the following year. (fn. 43) Blackfriars then passed to the Dennis family, which
owned it until the end of the 17th century. (fn. 44)
Among later owners of Bell's Place were, in the
early 18th century, Samuel Cockerell and, from
1768, the woolstapler John Bush. (fn. 45) The claustral
buildings were divided into dwellings in the early
18th century (fn. 46) and one part housed the workshop
of the Bryan family of stonemasons from at least
1755 until 1802 when the business passed to
George Wood. (fn. 47) In the early 19th century part of
the west range was heightened and refronted to
form three houses. By the 1930s Bell's Place was
divided into two dwellings and the several tenants
of the claustral buildings included firms of printers and mineral water manufacturers. (fn. 48)
Most of the surviving buildings at Blackfriars (fn. 49)
reflect the building grants of the mid 13th
century. Of that date are parts of the chancel and
the nave and its arcades and most of the claustral
ranges south of the church. The west range of the
claustral buildings included at its south end the
refectory, using the full height of the building,
while the south range had the buttery and other
rooms on the ground floor and a room lined with
carrels, perhaps a library, on the first floor. The
east range, mostly destroyed, apparently included
the chapter house. In the 14th century the north
aisle of the church was rebuilt. When the church
was converted into Bell's Place c. 1540 the nave
and chancel were shortened and the aisles, except
for their eastern ends, were removed. Upper
floors and stone-mullioned windows were inserted, and a semicircular bay was added on the
north side of the former nave. About 1960 restoration of the Blackfriars buildings was begun by
the Ministry of Works; (fn. 50) by 1984 work on the
former church had been completed and it was
open to the public.
There were formerly two gateways leading into
the Blackfriars precinct. One, described as the
great gate of the friars preacher in 1455, stood on
Longsmith Street at the entrance to what became
Ladybellegate Street, (fn. 51) and another, recorded in
1509, stood on Southgate Street at the entrance to
the lane called Blackfriars. (fn. 52) By 1630 both those
gates were known as Lady Bell's gate (fn. 53) after Joan
Bell. The one on Southgate Street fell down in the
mid 18th century, (fn. 54) and the one on Longsmith
Street has not been found recorded after 1724. (fn. 55)
GREYFRIARS.
The house of Franciscan friars
was founded c. 1231 on a site east of Southgate
Street. Additional land was given to the friars in
1239, 1285, and 1359, (fn. 56) and their property later
extended to the town walls on the south and east. (fn. 57)
In 1544 the Crown granted the site to John
Jennings, who sold it a few weeks later to Alderman Thomas Payne. (fn. 58) In 1556 Payne granted a
500-year lease to Alderman Thomas Pury (fn. 59) and
Greyfriars continued to be held under that lease,
the occupants paying a chief rent of 30s. to the
owners of the freehold, who from 1630 were the
city corporation. (fn. 60) At the beginning of the 18th
century Greyfriars was held by the town clerk,
Judge John Powell, and his heirs, the Snell family
of Guiting Power, held it for most of the rest of
that century, together with various other leasehold and freehold properties in the Southgate
Street area. (fn. 61)
Immediately after the Dissolution part of the
church was converted into a brewhouse, (fn. 62) a purpose for which it was suited by its supply of piped
water from Robins Wood Hill; (fn. 63) brewing
apparently continued there until the mid 18th
century. (fn. 64) A windmill which Thomas Pury
mentioned among his possessions in 1577 (fn. 65) was
presumably that which stood on the north-east
part of the friary property in 1610. (fn. 66) The buildings
were severely damaged by artillery fire at the siege
in 1643, (fn. 67) and by 1721, though the nave and north
aisle of the church survived largely intact, the
chancel and most of the claustral ranges had
vanished. (fn. 68) Later in the 18th century, before c.
1770, several dwelling houses were built within
the shell of the church, (fn. 69) and about 1810 a substantial residence in classical style was built into
the west end by Philo Maddy, a currier. (fn. 70) Another
large house, later called Suffolk House, was built
in the early 19th century, close to, but detached
from, the east end of the church; (fn. 71) after housing a
private school for many years, it became the
Liberal club in 1890 and the children's library in
1938. (fn. 72) Its site was taken in the late 1960s for the
new market hall and at the same time the remains
of the church were restored, the large house at the
west end was renovated as a new children's library, and the other houses were removed.
The shell of the church survives from a rebuilding carried out at the cost of Maurice Berkeley,
Lord Berkeley, and begun c. 1518. (fn. 73) Nave and
aisle, separated by a tall arcade of seven bays, are
of equal height and almost equal width. Below
and between the large windows much of the
interior wall surface was decorated by blind
panelling. The vanished chancel was of the same
width, and probably the same height, as the nave.
The cloister, which had a pentice roof, abutted
the eastern six bays of the south wall of the nave.
By the early 18th century a bowling green had
been laid out south-east of the remains of the
church, and in 1747 a dwelling house called
Bowling Green House, evidently incorporating
some remains of the domestic buildings of the
friary, adjoined the west side of the green. (fn. 74) That
building with the green and adjoining land called
Friars Orchard was alienated by the Snells before
1783. It was bought that year by Shadrach
Charleton, an apothecary, who by 1790 had
rebuilt Bowling Green House (fn. 75) as a classical-style
mansion. (fn. 76) Charleton or one of the later owners,
who included from 1804 the surgeon Charles
Brandon Trye, (fn. 77) formed the land to the east and
south of the house into a small park. (fn. 78) In 1888 the
property was acquired for the Crypt school; the
house (by then known as Friars Orchard) became
the school's junior house and a new school
building was built on the west part of the site. (fn. 79)
The east part of the site was taken for the
technical college, built between 1938 and 1941, (fn. 80)
and the former school buildings were removed
during later extensions to the college. Another
house which stood west of the site of Bowling
Green House in the early 18th century apparently
preserved the alignment of the west walk of the
cloister. (fn. 81) It was replaced in the early 1860s
when two terraces of houses called Priory Place
and a larger house called Priory House were
built. (fn. 82)
WHITEFRIARS.
The house of Carmelite friars
was founded c. 1268 near Brook Street, outside
the walls at the north-east corner of the town. (fn. 83)
The building of the church seems to have been in
progress in 1290. (fn. 84) For enlarging its buildings the
friary received 3½ a. of land and a house from two
benefactors in 1343. (fn. 85) In 1543 the site was bought
by two property speculators who sold it almost
immediately to Thomas and Joan Bell. (fn. 86) Bell gave
it in 1562 as part of the endowment of St.
Kyneburgh's almshouse. (fn. 87)
Most of the Whitefriars buildings are said to
have been demolished c. 1567. (fn. 88) In 1637 those
surviving included a brick and stone building
known as the founder's lodging, by then converted to a barn. (fn. 89) Further destruction occurred
before the siege of 1643 when some of the materials were used for the fortifications, but the barn,
housing one of the defenders' batteries, played a
major part in the fighting. (fn. 90) The barn was pulled
down in the late 17th century or the early 18th, (fn. 91)
after which the name Friars Ground given to the
site seems to have been the only reminder of the
friary. (fn. 92) The north-west part of Friars Ground
was used for the new cattle market in the early
1820s. (fn. 93)