Greyfriars, Leicester

Greyfriars, Leicester
Location within Leicestershire
General information
Type	Monastery
Location	SK58650434
Town or city	Leicester
Country	United Kingdom
Construction started	13th century
Demolished	16th century

Greyfriars, Leicester, was a Franciscan monastic community, established on the west side of Leicester from about 1255, and demolished at its dissolution in the late 1530s. The locality has retained the name Greyfriars particularly in the streets named "Grey Friars", and the older "Friar Lane". Although a small monastery, its church acquired national significance when Richard III was buried there following his death at Bosworth Field. With the destruction of the church, the site was levelled, subdivided, and developed over the following centuries. A 2012 archaeological dig attempted to identify the site of the Greyfriars church and the location of Richard's burial. On 4 February 2013 it was confirmed that these objectives had been achieved, and the remains of Richard's body had been uncovered.

Franciscan Friary

Site of the Greyfriars Church. The skeleton of Richard III was recovered in September 2012 from the centre of the choir, shown by a small black dot.

A funeral procession led by monks of the Greyfriars. This engraving may be specific to Leicester, raising the possibility that the Church in the background is the 13th century Greyfriars Church.

The first English Franciscans established a friary at Canterbury around 1224, and became known as Grey Friars from the colour of their garments. Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, has been credited with founding their Leicester monastery, but they appear to have been established by 1230, a year before de Montfort was made Earl. They were able to acquire a site within the Leicester town walls, built their Priory Church, and were given oak trees by Henry III "to make stalls and wainscote their chapel". Permission was given to expand the Dwelling place in 1349. The Friary had gates onto both Peacock Lane (formerly known as St Francis Lane) to the north, and Friar Lane to the south. However, it is only with the archaeological dig of 2012 that the specific site of the Church, and some clues as to the layout of the monastic buildings has been established. The church occupied an area in the north-east of the plot, with the cloisters and other monastic buildings extending to the south.

Leicester achieved a degree of notoriety when, in 1402, ten of the friars, along with a master of divinity, were convicted of conspiring in favour of the deposed Richard II, and therefore against Henry IV. Although two juries failed to convict, a third convicted them and all were executed at Lichfield. A general chapter of the Franciscans was held at Leicester the same year, in which it was explicitly forbidden for any member of the Order to speak against the King.

In April 1414 Henry V convened Parliament in Leicester (the so called Fire and Faggot Parliament). The Lords assembled in the 'Large Hall' of the Greyfriars Friary, while the Commons met in "La Fermerie", which may be the Greyfriars tythe barn, which ended up as the 18th century meeting hall of Leicester Methodists. The main business of the sessions was the supression of Lollardy, the punishment for which was to be confiscation of property, or even burning at the stake, giving rise to the name.

Burial of Richard III

Archaeological dig open day at Greyfriars, Leicester, 8 September 2012. An exposed stone at the bottom of the picture is interpreted as a stone seat from the Chapter House. At the far end of the trench were foundations thought to be the eastern end of the Friary Church

In 1485, following his death in battle against Henry Tudor at Bosworth Field, Richard III's body was thrown across a horse and brought to Leicester where it was put on display for several days, after which it was buried in the Greyfriars Church. Ten years later, Henry VII paid for a tomb 'of many-coloured marble' to be built. The tomb is presumed to have been demolished along with the Church following its dissolution after 1536. An account arose that when the tomb was destroyed, Richard's bones were thrown into the River Soar by the nearby Bow Bridge. In 1920, C.J Billson regarded this as a mere legend and highly improbable, a view endorsed by David Baldwin in 1986. By the end of the 20th century, aided by a plaque near the Bow Bridge, the notion was sufficiently entrenched as to be reported as fact in authoritative history books. However, the Archaeology service of the University of Leicester, along with the Richard III Society and Leicester City Council, initiated an archaeological study resulting in three trenches being dug across the parking area behind the buildings on Greyfriars. These excavations revealed walls of the cloisters and the Church, enabling a possible layout for the monastic buildings to be drawn. Also found was the complete skeleton of a male showing severe scoliosis and major head wounds. On 4 February 2013 the University of Leicester confirmed that the skeleton was that of Richard III, based on numerous tests. The mtDNA was compared with two known descendant of Richard III's older sister, Anne of York, and on 4 February 2013 it was confirmed that the mtDNA matched, that the radiocarbon agreed, and that the characteristics of the bones and the nature of the head wounds were all entirely consistent with this being the remains of Richard III.

Main article: Exhumation of Richard III

Post-dissolution development

After the dissolution, the Church and monastic buildings were acquired in 1536 by two property speculators from Lincolnshire, John Bellowe and John Broxholme. They demolished the buildings in 1538, selling off the stones and building materials. Some of the stones and timber were used to repair St Martin's Church (now the Cathedral). The 2012 excavation trenches revealed the original wall trenches, which were filled with mortar from the removal of the original stones. Some tracery and other carved stones were found, but most had been efficiently recycled elsewhere. The church foundations, floor levels, and demolition layer were found under some 30 centimetres (12 in) of garden soil, itself capped by a further 45 centimetres (18 in) of mill waste used to create a base for the car parking area of recent years.

Herrick's mansion

Sir Robert Catlyn, Chief Justice to Elizabeth I, acquired the site from Bellowe and Broxholme, and it was later bought by Robert Herrick (Heyrick), a prominent Leicester citizen, who was three-times mayor of Leicester. Herrick built a mansion fronting onto Friar Lane, with extensive gardens over the east end of the Friary grounds. These gardens were visited by Christopher Wren Sr. (1589–1658) in 1611, who recorded being shown a handsome stone pillar with an inscription, "Here lies the body of Richard III, some time King of England". The Herrick family, who also owned the country estate of Beaumanor, near Loughborough, sold the mansion to Thomas Noble in 1711, who, like Herrick 130 years before him, represented Leicester in Parliament.

Georgian development

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Pares Bank

Conway Bld's

Old School

Friary Church site

site of Herrick's mansion

Thomas Noble's son, also Thomas, put through a road across the Greyfriars in 1740 that spanned from near the Cathedral to Friar Lane. It became known as "New Street", and provided road frontages for smaller building development plots. The mansion and gardens were sold in 1743 to Roger Ruding of Westcotes. Georgian buildings were built along New Street and Friar Lane, many of which date to the mid and late 18th Century and remain standing. In 1752 the mansion house and grounds were sold to Richard Garle, who sold it in 1776 to Thomas Pares, a Leicester banker. Pares enlarged the mansion, by now considered Leicester's principal private residence, and additionally built a banking house at the extreme east end of the site, on the corner of St Martin's and Hotel Street. In 1900, Pares Bank was rebuilt in very grand style to a design by J. B. Everard and S. Perkins Pick. Through mergers, it became a branch of the National Westminster Bank.

Victorian buildings

Alderman Newton's Boys School. The furthest section is the original school, with extensions along the left side. Trench 3 of the 2012 dig can be seen in the former playground

When Pares died in 1824, all but the banking house was sold to Beaumont Burnaby. The mansion house was by now known as "The Grey Friars", and was subdivided so that by 1863, one part was occupied by Burnaby's widow, and the other by a Mrs Parsons.

School building

In 1863, Mrs Parsons was persuaded to sell a plot of land to the trustees of Alderman Newton's Boys School, enabling a move from their school in Holy Bones. The character of the area was described at that point as "very open and salubrious and in the neighbourhood of several large gardens." The school was built in 1864, and extended in 1887 and 1897, fronting on to St Martins. In 1920, Alderman Newton's moved to the former Wyggeston School buildings at the other end of Peacock Lane (now the St Martin's cathedral centre). The old school buildings became the Girls School and then the preparatory school. When the Alderman Newton's School moved to Glenfield Road in the 1970s, the buildings became Leicester Grammar School, and the St Martins buildings were used by the sixth formers. When Leicester Grammar School itself moved to Great Glen, they were renamed 'St Martin's Place', and used as offices. In the 2012 archaeological dig, trench 3 was located in the former playground of Alderman Newton's School. In late 2012 it was acquired by Leicester City Council, who announced in February 2013 that it is to become a Richard III museum.

Corporation and County Council

No 1, Grey Friars, County Offices for Leicestershire County Council from 1936 to 1965. It is on the site of the Herrick mansion

The two parts of the mansion and the remainder of its gardens were bought by the Leicester Corporation in 1866. They originally intended it to be the site of a new Town Hall. In 1872, they decided instead to use a site at what is now Town Hall Square. At the mansion site, they demolished the house, cleared the ground, and created a new road linking St Martins and Friar Lane, called "Grey Friars". This rapidly acquired several fine commercial Victorian buildings. In 1873, at the corner of St Martin's facing Pares Bank, the Leicester Savings Bank was built. In 1878, the Conway Buildings, 7 Grey Friars, were built to be the offices of W W Clarkson & Co. brick and tile merchants, and designed by Stockdale Harrison in late 19th Century Gothic style. In 1880, Barradale's architects office, 5 Grey Friars was built. Designed by Isaac Barradale for his own use, it is an early example of Domestic Revival style. Ernest Gimson was articled to Barradale, and worked in these offices between 1881 and 1885. One of the few 20th century buildings on the site was built in 1936, over the place where the Herrick Mansion had stood, on what was by then the corner of Grey Friars and Friar Lane. It served as the county offices for Leicestershire County Council until the completion of County Hall in 1965. It has since become one of several buildings in the area for the administration of social services.

The buildings fronting onto Grey Friars, Friar Lane, New Street, and St Martins surround an area that for over a century has been car parks, back yards, and a school yard, and were gardens for 300 years before that. The identification of the exact site of the church and monastic buildings through the archaeological dig of 2012 has shown that much of the Greyfriars Church foundations, including the grave of Richard III, are within that area and lay undisturbed for the whole of that time.

Richard III Museum

With the confirmation in February 2013 that Richard III's burial place had been found, the City Council are to convert the former Alderman Newton's school buildings into a museum about Richard III. A temporary exhibition will be housed in the Guildhall until the permanent museum is opened in 2014. The intention is to open the museum at the same time that the remains are interred in Leicester Cathedral.