Gloucester Civic Trust Historic Essays

INTRODUCTION
Proposed regeneration of Gloucester Quays by British Waterways and Peel Developments (UK) Ltd has provided the impetus for detailed historical and archaeological study of the medieval Augustinian priory of Llanthony Secunda. In the late 18th century, the Priory was bisected by the cutting of the Gloucester to Berkeley Canal and further disruption to the site was caused when the canal was widened to create the existing wharves in the mid 19th century. Although a number of medieval priory buildings and structures survive to the west of the canal at Llanthony Wharf, including the impressive remains of an outer gatehouse and a large tithe barn, nothing survives above ground to determine the location of the former priory church, and cloisters. It has long been assumed that site of the church and cloisters were largely obliterated during the construction of the canal and later wharves.

Recent work has included both desk-based research and field investigation. In particular, the historical research undertaken by Pat Hughes and John Rhode and the subsequent trial excavations undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology suggest that the assumed location of the church and cloisters is incorrect and sheds new light on the layout of the medieval priory. While further work at the site is anticipated, these conclusions are considered to be of sufficient significance to merit this interim publication.

THE SITE
Lying close to the River Severn at about 11n AOD, the site of Llanthony Secunda Priory is situated less than 1km to the south-west of the modem city centre of Gloucester. The site is currently occupied by 19th and 20th-century industrial and commercial premises, including areas of car parking and rough ground. The surviving medieval buildings and structures lie within an area protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Glos.337), the centre of which lies at approximately NGR: SO 824180

Surviving medieval structures
The outer gatehouse in Llanthony Road dates from c.1500 and comprises a pedestrian arch with only a fragment of the wider vehicular arch surviving adjacent. A small window with a square hoodmould above the pedestrian arch, which no doubt lit a porter's room, is flanked by shields with a third shield above. The gatehouse is lined with a distinctive, sandy brick, which was also used in the precinct wall flanking it to the south. The tithe barn is the most impressive of the medieval buildings that have survived on site. Partly relined in early 16th-century brick, it seems to have been roofless since the beginning of the 18th century. The western porch was removed in the first half of the 19th century and part of the front wall in the late 19th century. To the south, part of a timber-studded range survives. This was originally built in stone, probably in the 13th century, but the upper storey was replaced with post-and-pan half timbering in the early 16th century. At the southern end of this range is a Victorian farmhouse within which survives part of another medieval gateway that once led from the outer court to the inner court. The brick barns at the southern end of the inner court were also probably built in the early 16th century as stables. Further sections of late medieval precinct wall also survive.

The medieval priory
The Augustinian priory of Llanthony in Gloucester was founded in 1136 as a cell of the mother church, Llanthony Prima, at Llanthony in Monmouthshire, at a time when the Welsh borders were in turmoil and the prior and canons required a refuge. The church at Llanthony Secunda was begun in May 1136 and was consecrated in September 1137.When peace returned to the borders, successive priors remained in Gloucester. The two communities separated in 1205 after which Llanthony Secunda flourished, amassing property within Gloucester, while the mother church became impoverished. Llanthony Secunda eventually absorbed its Welsh parent in 1481.

In 1301 the church, including four towers, was gutted by fire. The west front was rebuilt with twin towers flanking a great window of three stepped lancets. Most of the fabric surviving above ground today dates from the end of the 15th century when the then prior, Henry Deane, proceeded to reconstruct both church and precinct, including the outer gatehouse. He also enlarged the south and west ranges of the inner court. By this time Llanthony Secunda was the richest Augustinian house in England, and entertained the court of Henry VII in 1500 and 1501. The priory was dissolved in 1538.

Dissolution to Civil War
In 1540 the priory site was sold for £723 to Arthur Porter, JP, for the County of Gloucestershire and former understeward to the priory. Part of the priory church remained in use as the parish church.This was probably the nave; elsewhere, where part of a dissolved monastic church was retained for local worship, the chancel was usually removed to prevent restoration of the monastery. As part of his lease, Porter was required to keep and pay for a chaplain, his wages being deducted from the priory rent.

In 1559, the site was described as a 'capital messuage' indicating that part of the site was then in use as a dwelling house. Three generations of the Porter family used the priory as their country house until 1615 when the property passed through marriage to Sir John (later Lord Viscount) Scudamore, although Sir Arthur and Lady Ann Porter continued to live there until their deaths in 1630 and 1632 respectively. Parts of the priory were then leased out to a succession of tenants including, in 1634, an Edward Spencer, yeoman, of Gloucester. The Scudamores also retained part of the property, which appears to have flourished right up to the outbreak of the Civil War.

Civil War to Canal
Llanthony suffered damage from both Royalists and Parliamentarians during the Civil War. Lord Viscount Scudamore, a fervent Royalist, was taken prisoner when Hereford fell in April 1643, after which his properties were plundered. The damage inflicted by the Parliamentarians was compounded by Royalists during the siege of Gloucester in August 1643, when Llanthony served as a base for the besieging forces. From the shelter of the priory walls and buildings, the Royalist troops bombarded the city with bullets and received similar punishment. One account tells of cannon fire from the Barbican that landed at Llanthony and "made the stones of the wall fly about their ears..."

Writing in about 1660, Lord Scudamore stated that the parochial church at Llanthony had been "utterly demolished" and rather than rebuild it he decided to upgrade the church in the adjoining parish of Hempsted where a new rectory was finished in 1671. The damage and loss of revenue occasioned by the Civil War also signalled the end of Llanthony House as a gentleman's residence. Although apparently still standing in 1662, there is no mention of the house in 1670 and it must have been demolished by then. At the end of that year the property was leased to John Clissold except for the churchyard and "all the old walls and ruinous buildings". The impression gained is that stone was being cleared from the site and either sold or used on elsewhere on the estate.

Sometime after 1670 the property was given over to farming entirely and the timber-studded range was converted into a farmhouse, Little is known of the property in the 18th century as the accounts from Hempsted parish do not survive for that period. However, descriptions of Llanthony written by Archdeacon John Furney, who visited in 1717, provide important details from both his own observations and those of older people who recalled the substantial ruins of the church and cloister. These included one Welch Thomas, who in his teens had been stationed at Llanthony under Captain Morgan during the Siege of Gloucester. 

There is no doubt from Furney's accounts and from other sources that by the 18th century there was little left of the church and cloisters. For example, writing in 1727 Matthew Gibson noted that "of the conventual church not one stone is left upon another that is not thrown down. All of the buildings belonging to the priory are likewise destroyed, except some of the meanest offices. Neither remain there any marks of its former greatness except the west and south gates... " The earliest known maps to accurately depict the layout of the priory date from the last quarter of the 18th century By this time, the ruins of the priory church and cloisters were not considered a feature worth recording.

The Canal and the later history
In the 1790s, work began on the construction of the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal (now the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal), the line of which cut straight through the priory precinct . Construction involved cutting to a depth of 14 feet and piling the earth on the banks to a height not exceeding 6 feet. Little is known of the impact on the remains of the priory, although it was recorded that "many large stones were found in excavating for the canal but unfortunately no care was taken to preserve any record of them. The construction of the banks produced a grassy verge with towpath running along it, between four and six feet above the level of the farmland adjacent.

The canal remained in this state for nearly 50 years, but with the advent of the railway and the need for an outlet for the coat from the Forest of Dean, a proposal was put forward by the Gloucester and Dean Railway Company for a railway link and a large dock to be constructed in Sizes Meadow (formerly Llanthony Orchard). The cost of this undertaking soon led to the abandonment of the dock proposal in favour of a railway yard and new quay constructed by widening the canal along the Llanthony frontage.(35) This was achieved by digging a trench parallel to the canal in which the new quay wall was built, while the original bank was left in place.  The railway line from Over to the new quay was completed in 1854.

During the works, the Gloucester Journal reported finds of "two stone coffins lying east and west on the spot on which the chapel is supposed to have stood", and also reported encaustic tiles and fragments of stone arches, windows and doorways, together with human bone. Further observations of monastic remains were made by John Clarke.

Although the construction of the canal wharves and railway dominated the development of the site in the 19th century, gradual 'modernisation' of the farmstead took place throughout the century. The accommodation was redesigned, probably between 1855 and 1860, to create the present Victorian farmhouse and various sheds were constructed and ponds created. Llanthony Abbey Farm (as it became known) continued to be owned by descendants of the Scudamores until 1898 when it was sold to J. M. Collett, chemical manufacturer, who intended to build a factory there. However, the farm was appropriated by the Great Western Railway in 1906. In the 20th century, various enterprises leased the farm including horn manufacturers and the Gloucester City Rifle Club. The importance of the upstanding remains of the priory was officially recognised in 1949 when the site of Llanthony Abbey Farm was protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Gloucestershire no. 337) Gloucester City Council purchased the site from British Railways in 1974.

LOCATION OF THE CHURCH AND CLOISTERS
Although nothing remains above ground of the church and cloisters, it had long been assumed that these formerly stood to the south-east of the tithe barn. This assumption is undoubtedly based on the observations of Clarke. These are valuable as he plotted the position of two stone walls projecting from the canal bank (and now destroyed) in relation to the rest of the priory remains. Clarke's interpretation of these remains as the priory church was convincing: he claimed of having "proved beyond all doubt that these were the walls of the chapel', although his reconstruction drawing provides the priory with a suspiciously colossal cloister quadrangle. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, Clarke's interpretation was accepted as accurate. In 1988, the extent of the Scheduled Area was extended to the south and cast to specifically include the assumed site of the church and cloistral range.

Reinterpretation of the location of the priory church and cloisters comes from a number of sources that, collectively, indicate that these were located to the north of their assumed position and therefore outside of the current Scheduled Area.

The Prior's lodgings and mansion house
The church and cloisters are not the only buildings of which no trace survives above ground. The location of the early post-medieval mansion house of the Porters and the Scudamores is also unknown, and this is probably not unconnected. It is more than likely that Porter's mansion was actually part of the cloisters, probably within the western cloistral range, and that the mansion was created by adapting the existing late medieval lodgings of the prior. There are several pieces of evidence to support this.

Firstly, references to the timber-studded range as the 'Prior's Lodgings' are incorrect. It was converted from an outhouse into a residence sometime after 1670. Archdeacon Furney, writing in 1717/8, noted that "what is now ye dwellinghouse was formerly ye stable. That all along it on the outside were iron rings in the walls to tye ... horses to', and the account of Welch Thomas clearly states that "the present dwelling house was altered from being an outhouse to what it is at present" after the Civil War, Further evidence comes from the 1634 lease between the Scudamores and Edward Spencer, which lists holdings from south to north, from the "Middle Gatehowse, the Oxhowses, the Backyard adjoyninge unto the barne... " The building between the middle (inner) gatehouse (now the farmhouse) and the barn, i.e. the timber-studded range, was then used for stabling oxen.

Secondly, there is evidence that implies the mansion was fashioned from the cloister. Another lease of 1634 includes a reference to "all that orchard and tower with, thappurtences next adjoining to the mansion house..." A tower at 17th-century Llanthony is likely to have originated from the church, and this one was probably the southern tower of the 14th-century pair of the west front; adjoining it, the mansion house must have been within the western cloistral range. Further evidence comes from letters written following the depredations of the Civil War, when damage inflicted on the house included having "pulld down two corners of it..." and "a tower of an old chappel adjoyning thereunto was pulled down...". The demolition of the west front tower naturally would have pulled down 'two corners' of a mansion located adjacent in the western cloistral range. The concurrent disappearance of both the mansion house and the church following the Civil War provides yet further evidence. In Clissold's lease of 1670 there is no reference to the mansion house; ten years earlier, Scudamore had noted that the church at Llanthony had been "utterly demolished".

Thirdly, following the dissolution it was not unusual for the abbot's lodgings to be converted into a country residence for the new owner of a priory or abbey complex, for example at Muchelney Abbey (Somerset), Buildwas Abbey (Shropshire) and Great Malvern Priory (Worcestershire). In some monastic houses, late medieval abbot's lodgings were created within the cloister complex, for example within the eastern range at Valle Crucis Abbey (Liangollen), and at the corner of the southern and western ranges at Cleeve Abbey (Somerset). A direct comparison for Llanthony Secunda is Hailes Abbey (Gloucestershire), where the abbot's lodging occupied the west range "from the church to the frayter southward"; in all of these instances, the abbot's private quarters became part of later mansions. Most importantly, part of the west range at Llanthony Prima, including the abbot's lodgings and the south-west tower of the church, were converted into a house (and later a hotel) following the dissolution.

The priory church and cloisters
If it is accepted that the post-medieval mansion lay within the cloisters, the location of the church and cloisters maybe elucidated by considering the leases of 1634 and 1670. Clissold's lease of 1670 expressly excludes a parcel of land called 'the Churchyard', together with 'all the old walls and ruinous buildings'. The lease goes on to define the Churchyard thus:

"... on the cast side ... an old ruined Wall dividing it from a parcel of pasture called the High Orchard and on the west side with a Stone wall fencing it from the Great Yard called Llanthony Courte [the inner court] and on the north side with a low stone wall parting it from certain grounds called Llanthony orchard ..."

From this description the Churchyard can be confidently placed as 9a on the 1780 plan, and Llanthony Orchard as the field 9b to the north Unfortunately, the lease does not say whether the Churchyard was thus named as it contained the ruins of the church and cloisters, or because it had been the burial ground for the post-medieval parish church. However, the 1634 lease states that an orchard adjoined the mansion house. Had the mansion stood to the north-cast of the tithe barn, it certainly would have been adjacent to (and its ruins later within) Llanthony Orchard, whereas a location within the Churchyard would have placed it adjacent to the inner court. This cannot be seen as conclusive evidence, however, as just over a hundred years later the inner court was depicted as an orchard on the 1780 plan.

The writings of Archdeacon Furney in 1717 and 1718 provide useful detail on both the layout of the early 18th-century site and, from the recollections of others, the mid to late 17th-century development of the farmstead. However, the location of the church and cloisters remains elusive. Furney noted:

"the Priory stood more towards Littleworth than ye present buildings do ... That the Priory stood where now there is a Hillock on that side ... The hillock or piece of rais'd ground is now remaining and seems by ye ground to have been the ruins of the chapel or some other great buildings and on the East side there are also ruins of some considerable edifice so that tis very probable there was a quadrangle..."

The priory's proximity to Littleworth, a string of buildings to either side of the Bristol Road without the south gate of the city, is repeated later but, as Littleworth lay to the north-east of the surviving priory buildings, either location would have fitted this description. There was clearly a piece of raised ground where the church and cloisters had stood, but Furney did not pinpoint its location precisely.

Furney also noted "that ye old building whose walls now remain & face the City was ye Old Barn ... that ye little house near it on the west side was ye Priory Dove House. That there was a Great gate formerly standing just beyond the Dove house which faced the City..." No evidence survives for this 'great gate' but it seems to have allowed access between the outer court and the field to the north of the tithe barn. A 'great' gate, presumably a large and formal entranceway, has no context in this location unless leading to significant priory buildings to the north of the tithe barn, such as the west front of the church.

Perhaps the most conclusive documentary evidence for the former location of the church and cloisters come from two sources, both dated 1846. The first is from the Transactions of the British Archaeological Association at its Third Annual Congress, which was held at Gloucester in August 1846. Mr T. Wright was reported as having observed that:

"...the priory barn and some outhouses were all that remained of this once magnificent building, but that a larger field between the barn and the river evidently covered the floors and foundations of the church and cloisters. He had that morning learnt that the field was on the eve of being excavated to form docks for the Forest of Dean Company.

Assuming Wright did not confuse the river with the canal, this unequivocally places the field to the north of the tithe barn. It seems that work on the docks commenced, for later that year it was reported in the Gloucester Journal that:

"An interesting discovery has just been made by the workmen of Mr Wm. Jones whilst excavating the earth in a field around the old abbey of Llanthony, adjoining this city, and close to the present docks. Five old church pillars of the Norman period, including the base and about four feet of the shaft ... were dug up. They were standing about eight feet apart and were embedded fully five feet below the surface of the meadow ... The pillars have been arranged on the surface of the ground and may be seen by the curious in ecclesiastical antiquities."

There can be little doubt that these were the remains of the priory church, and if Wright was correct about the location this was in Sizes Meadow, to the north of the tithe barn. It is curious therefore that writing only seven years later, Clarke should use this evidence as having "incontestibly[sic] proved" the site of the chapel as being to the south-east of the tithe barn. The pillars were uncovered in 1846 and Clarke's observations were made in 1852, so he may never have observed the pillars in situ and may have made assumptions as to their original location. The wall remains recorded by Clarke were probably medieval in origin, and one certainly seems to have been of massive proportions, but these could easily represent monastic buildings other than the priory church.

FIELDWORK

Archaeological field evaluation was undertaken by Cotswold Archaeology between August and November 2003 to inform development proposals and to investigate the findings of the documentary research. A total of twelve trial trenches were excavated to the west of the canal, seven of which were located to investigate the survival of any medieval remains relating to the former priory church and cloisters as indicated by the documentary evidence.

Results (Fig.6)
Evidence for medieval walls was observed in trenches CIA, C3S and C3N. Natural deposits were located between 2.2m and 2.5m below ground level in these trenches. In trench C3S, the remains of two medieval mortared limestone walls were located at a depth of about 2m. One wall was aligned east/west, and clearly continued eastwards the alignment of the north wall of the adjacent tithe barn. Deposits accumulated against the south side of this wall were dated to the 14th/15th century and earlier. To the north, a return wall surviving to six courses headed northwards. Deposits associated with the robbing of both walls dated to the 17th/18th century, and were overlain by about 1.5m of later deposits.

To the north-east of trench C3S, the remains of an earlier ground surface were located in trench C3N at 1.5m below ground level. Another east/west-aligned wall crossed this trench, also surviving to six courses. The remains of a flagstone surface abutted the northern side of this wall; the southern side of the wall had been scorched. No dating evidence was recovered, but medieval construction could be inferred from the similarity of deposits seen in trench C3S.

Two courses of foundations for another limestone mortared wall were found at depth at the northern end of trench C4, which could be dated to the 13th to 15th century. The wall had been entirely robbed away to the south. In trench CIA, an east/west-aligned robber trench filled with 19th century debris was recorded, which may also have marked the former position of a medieval wall.

There was no evidence for any medieval remains in trenches C IB, C2 or CS. At the southern end of trench C2, two burials were located at a depth of 2m within a soil layer dated to the 16th/17th century. Both burials were aligned cast/west. Within the narrow trial trench the burials were difficult to identify from the top of this layer, and further burials may have been present but were not located. To the south of the burials, the fragmentary remains of an east/west-aligned limestone wall were recorded overlying the soil layer. Both the wall and the burials were sealed by layers of 16th/17th century demolition rubble containing fragments of medieval floor tile and stained glass as well as a large quantity of disarticulated human bone.

CONCLUSIONS

The medieval walls identified in trenches C3S, C3N and C4 are probably the remains of the western cloistral range of Llanthony Secunda Priory. While caution must be exercised with such limited evidence, the alignments of all these walls suggest a unified plan conforming to the orientation of the tithe barn. The build-up of deposits to the south of the east/west wall in trench C3S indicates an open area to the south of this wall; the floor in trench C3N may well have been internal. One interpretation of these remains is given, but others are possible. It is likely that these walls were also those of the post-medieval mansion house, built within the western range of the cloisters. The east/west wall later divided the Churchyard from Llanthony Orchard.

The presence of 16th/I7th-century burials at the southern end of trench C2, within the area of the 'Churchyard', appears to confirm this as an early post medieval burial ground rather than the site of the priory church. Quantities of 17th-century demolition material scaling the burials also concords with the documentary evidence for the final demolition of the church and cloisters, including the mansion house, shortly after the Civil War.

Most of trench C2 and all of trenches C1B and CS contained no medieval or early post-medieval deposits. These trenches lay within an area that appeared to have been deeply truncated and subsequently in filled with 18th and 19th-century deposits. This was originally interpreted as the infilling of a post-medieval pond with redeposited clay and sand from the construction (or widening) of the canal, which elsewhere raised the ground level by about a metre. However, it now seems much more likely that this deep intrusion represents works associated with the abandoned dock scheme of the late 1840s, during which the discovery of the remains of the priory church seems to have been made. Assuming the medieval remains identified in the evaluation trenches are those of the cloisters, and assuming the priory church stood to the north of the cloisters (as is usual), then the projected location of the church would lie almost entirely within this massive truncation identified from the evaluation trench.

Further work may provide more information regarding the layout of Llanthony Secunda Priory, but it is the extensive truncation of a range of medieval buildings by this vast intrusion that unfortunately provides the firmest evidence yet that the priory church and cloisters lay to the north of their long-assumed location.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank British Waterways and Peel Developments (UK) Ltd for funding the research and excavation, and for permission to publish this interim report. The assistance of Andrea Burgess (Scott Wilson), Nicholas Kingsley (Gloucestershire Record Office), Dr Nina Wahlberg (English Heritage) and John Rhodes is also gratefully acknowledged. The fieldwork was supervised by Mark Brett and managed by Clifford Bateman (both Cotswold Archaeology).