A Watching Brief at Wenlock Priory, Much Wenlock, Shropshire

by H R Hannaford

Archaeology Service

Community and Economic Services A WATCHING BRIEF AT WENLOCK PRIORY, MUCH WENLOCK, SHROPSHIRE

by H R HANNAFORD

A Report for

AMEC UTILITIES LTD.

Archaeology Service

Community and Economic Services

Report Number 161 © Shropshire County Council May 1999 Winston Churchill Building, Radbrook Centre, Radbrook Road, Shrewsbury , Shropshire SY3 9BJ Tel. (01743) 254018 A Watching Brief at Wenlock Priory, Much Wenlock, Shropshire

CONTENTS Page No 1 INTRODUCTION 2 2 HISTORY OF THE SITE 3 3 THE WATCHING BRIEF 5 4 DISCUSSION 7 5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED 8

ILLUSTRATIONS Fig. 1: The priory, showing the location of the open-cut workings and trenches (A- D); 1:1000 scale Fig. 2: Trench C - location plan; 1:100 scale Fig. 3: Trench C - a) northeast-facing and b) southeast-facing sections; 1:20 scale

Plate 1: Location of trench B, before excavation; looking north. Plate 2: Trench B, after excavation; looking northwest. Plate 3: Location of trench C, before excavation; looking west. Plate 4: Trench C, after excavation, showing wall 21; looking west.

1 A Watching Brief at Wenlock Priory, Much Wenlock, Shropshire

1 INTRODUCTION Much Wenlock is a small Shropshire town, situated about 18km southeast of Shrewsbury, on the A458 Shrewsbury to Bridgnorth road. In March 1999, part of a new water main was installed which affected the site of the medieval Wenlock Priory. The works involved a section of open cut mains laying within the existing roadway around the north and west sides of the former monastic precinct, and section of pipe- bursting mains replacement within the grounds of Wenlock Abbey, which necessitated the excavation of three small access trenches (Fig. 1).

Part of Wenlock Priory is a scheduled Ancient Monument, Shropshire County Monument Number 9, in the guardianship of English Heritage; other parts of the precinct are private property and are currently not scheduled. Although the works lay outside the scheduled area, it was considered possible that they might disturb archaeological features or deposits associated with the medieval priory. In order to mitigate the loss of any such features or deposits, it was considered necessary that the works should be subject to a programme of archaeological supervision and recording.

The Archaeology Service, Community and Economic Services, Shropshire County Council, was commissioned to carry out the archaeological supervision and recording by and on behalf of Amec Utilities, and this report details the results of this work.

2 A Watching Brief at Wenlock Priory, Much Wenlock, Shropshire

2 HISTORY OF THE SITE A monastery at Wenlock was founded some time after 654 by St. Botolph and was placed under an abbess, Liobsynde. Mildburga, daughter of Merewald and granddaughter of Penda, early Kings of Mercia, succeeded Liobsynde as abbess some time between 675 and 690; Mildburga remained abbess of the house until her death in c. 727. Like many early Christian communities, the abbey had two churches, the first, an apsidal building of Roman rather than Celtic plan was seen lying below the tower crossing of the later medieval abbey church in 1901 excavations by the Rev. D H S Cranage, vicar of Much Wenlock. This early church was probably used by monks and members of the lay community. The second church, for use by nuns and other women, was on the site of the lady chapel and south aisle of Holy Trinity Church, the town's parish church. There may also have been an oratory, although no trace of this survives today. It has been suggested that the priory was destroyed by the Danes in c. 874, although there is no direct evidence to support this assertion; in any case the Abbey must have survived, as it is mentioned in a charter issued by Aethelflaed and Aethelred in 901 granting land to the abbey. (Mumford, 1977, 5-10; SMR file SA307)

In 901 the abbey was ruled by a senior rather than an abbess and seems to have been reduced in status, becoming first a house for men only and later a college of secular canons. There is also a tradition that the church was re-founded by Earl Leofric of Mercia and his wife, the countess Godiva, in c. 1050 as a minster church. In c. 1080, under the patronage of Roger of Montgomery, Earl of Shrewsbury, the abbey was (again) re-founded, this time as a Benedictine monastery, a daughter-church of St. Mary's Priory at La Charité-sur-Loire, itself the principal daughter-house of the abbey of Cluny in Burgundy. The remains of a second church building were also found in 1901 to the east of the surviving crossing; this church has been claimed to date from either Leofric's re-foundation of the abbey c. 1053 or its establishment as a Cluniac priory in c. 1080. (Baugh and Cox, 1982, 6-7; Mumford, 1977, 5-10; SMR file SA307)

The cult of St Mildburga was built up deliberately in the early 12th century, following the convenient finding of her supposed remains near the altar of Holy Trinity Church in 1101, and it is possible that the cult attracted numbers of pilgrims to the abbey. In the 12th and 13th centuries the abbey added to and developed its estates and properties, at least in part to finance the extensive building programme needed to build the great abbey church and its associated ritual and domestic buildings. Of the present ruins, the chapter house (1150-80) and lavabo (1180-90) date to the 12th century, the main church to the 13th century, and the Lady Chapel to the first half of the 14th century. The former prior's lodgings, now a private house, have been dated to c.1425 by dendrochronology (Moran, 1994).

In the earlier 14th century, at the start of the Hundred Years War, the allegiance owed by Much Wenlock to its parent abbey in France led to it being classified as an "alien priory" and its rights and possessions were confiscated by the crown, and had to be bought back by the abbey at a high price. The ties between the abbey and its French parent house were necessarily loosened over the next two centuries, and in 1494 the abbey formally severed its links with La Charité. (Baugh and Cox, 1982)

3 A Watching Brief at Wenlock Priory, Much Wenlock, Shropshire

The monastery was dissolved in 1540 and the remaining monks pensioned off; the last prior, John Bayley, was given a pension of £80 per annum (see Mumford, 1977, Appendix IV, 178-9). The abbey land and buildings were sold to Thomas and Richard Lawley, the heads of a prominent local family. Most of the abbey buildings were allowed to decay, but the infirmary and prior's lodgings were converted by Thomas Lawley into a private mansion, and they remain so to this day. The ruins of the abbey church are in the guardianship of English Heritage.

4 A Watching Brief at Wenlock Priory, Much Wenlock, Shropshire

3 THE WATCHING BRIEF 3.1 Area A: The excavation of the trench for the new water main around the north and west sides of the former monastic precinct (Fig. 1; A) was carried out under close archaeological supervision.

Along the northern precinct, the trench revealed the south wall of a large stone culvert (Fig. 1; 8), running on a southwest to northeast alignment. The culvert was built of limestone flags and fragments bonded in a hard white mortar. At one point a stone from the side of the culvert was accidentally removed and at this point the culvert was seen to have an internal width of approximately 2.5m and a height of 1.5m. A 22m length of the culvert was exposed. The side and top of the culvert were sealed by deposits of sandy soil containing 18th- and 19th-century pottery, glass, and brick and limestone rubble.

Two sections of a second, smaller culvert (Fig. 1; 9 & 13) were seen in the trench along the western side of the precinct at a depth of c. 0.6m beneath the modern road surface. This culvert had a maximum internal width of c. 1m and a height of 0.5m, and was also built of limestone fragments bonded in hard white mortar. The culvert ran from south to north towards the larger culvert, although any junction between the two was obscured by telecommunication and electricity trenches crossing the line of the road at this point.

The remainder of the trench cut through made ground of 18th-century to modern date; no other significant archaeological features or deposits were seen in the open-cut section of the works.

3.2 Within the grounds of Wenlock Abbey, the new main was to be laid along the line of an existing main by means of pipe-bursting. The only groundworks involved in this consisted of the excavation of three small access trenches, required to locate the existing main and accommodate the pipe-bursting machine (Fig. 1; B-D). These three trenches were all excavated by hand under close archaeological supervision.

Trench B: This trench was excavated in an area where there were already a number of inspection chambers and a fire hydrant. A trench approximately 2.5m long by up to 1.25m wide was opened by hand, to reveal that the subsoil had been entirely disturbed by pipe and service trenches and manholes.

Trench C: In this trench the natural subsoil (Fig. 3; 31), which consisted of rounded limestone fragments and pebbles in a brown to reddish brown sandy matrix, was seen at a depth of 0.47m below the present ground surface in the southwestern side of the trench. A wall (Figs. 2 & 3; 21) of limestone flags bonded in a sandy clay with occasional traces of sandy lime mortar was seen cut into the natural in the western corner of the trench. The wall ran from south to north towards a standing wall continuing the line of the south wall of the frater building. Only two courses of the wall survived, and it was sealed by a layer 0.14m thick of greyish brown silty sand (Fig. 3; 23) containing limestone fragments and flecks of mortar, possibly representing demolition rubble. This lay beneath a compact layer 0.16m thick of grey silt (32) containing small fragments of limestone and brick, which had been cut by the

5 A Watching Brief at Wenlock Priory, Much Wenlock, Shropshire trench for the old water main (22). The back-fill (20) of the old main was in turn sealed beneath successive cinder (19) and gravel (18) driveway surfaces.

No further significant archaeological features or deposits were seen in this trench.

Trench D: In this trench, the natural subsoil was again seen at a depth of 0.5m below the present ground surface. The natural lay beneath a layer 0.32m thick of a compact grey clay containing pebbles and small fragments of brick and limestone. This layer had been cut by the trench for the old water main, whose backfill was also sealed by the chippings and tarmac of successive driveway surfaces. No significant archaeological features or deposits were encountered in this trench.

6 A Watching Brief at Wenlock Priory, Much Wenlock, Shropshire

4 DISCUSSION 4.1 Part of the top of the south side-wall of a large culvert was seen 0.8m below the road surface along the north side of the monastic precinct (although the top of the culvert will lie much closer to the ground surface beneath the road). The culvert carried a stream, the Shit Brook, which as its name suggests was an open sewer, flowing through the town and then through the valley on this side of the priory. The existence of this culvert was previously known, and it was thought to be possibly of medieval date, although one source (Mumford, 1977, 145) suggests that as late as 1890 at least part of the brook's course through the town was still an open stream. The evidence from the watching brief on trench A would suggest that the section of the culvert on the north side of the Priory was an 18th- or 19th-century construction, or at least was substantially rebuilt at that time. A smaller culvert serving as a road drain beneath the road along the west side of the monastic precinct was also probably of 18th-century date.

4.2 The only significant remains seen in any of the three trenches excavated in the grounds of Wenlock Abbey were the foundations of a stone wall running at right angles to the remains of the frater building. This wall was probably medieval in date and may have represented the west wall of a building attached to the southwest corner of the frater building. The top of the surviving foundations were sealed by a rubble layer possibly marking the demolition of this building.

7 A Watching Brief at Wenlock Priory, Much Wenlock, Shropshire

5 REFERENCES AND SOURCES CONSULTED Baugh, G C, and Cox, D C, 1982: Monastic Shropshire, Shropshire Libraries, Shrewsbury Gelling, M, 1992: The West Midlands in the Early Middle Ages, Leicester Hill, D, 1981: An Atlas of Anglo-Saxon England, Oxford Moran, M, 1994: Shropshire Dendrochronology Project, SNL 37 Spring 1994 Mumford, W F, 1977: Wenlock in the Middle Ages, Shrewsbury Pinnell, J, 1999: Wenlock Priory, English Heritage Stamper, P, 1993: A Survey of Historic Parks and Gardens in Shropshire, Shropshire County Council Archaeology Service report no. 41 Thorn, F and Thorn, C (eds), 1986: Domesday Book, Shropshire, Phillimore, Chichester

Abbreviations: APs Aerial Photographs OS Ordnance Survey SMR Sites and Monuments Record, Shire Hall, Shrewsbury SNL Shropshire Archaeology and History Newsletter SRRC Shropshire Records and Research Centre, Castle Gates, Shrewsbury TSAS Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society TSAHS Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society

8 A N

8

culvert

9

St Mildburga's 13 Priory

A D Wenlock Abbey B C

Based upon the Ordnance Survey mapping with the permission of the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office © Crown copyright. Unauthorised reproduction infringes Crown copyright and may lead to prosecution or civil proceedings. Shropshire County Council. LA 076821. 14/05/99

WENLOCK PRIORY 1999 Fig. 1: The priory, showing the location of the open-cut workings and trenches (A-D); 1:1000 scale N

frater

trench C

1021

0 5 metres

WENLOCK PRIORY 1999 Fig. 2: Trench C - location plan; 1:100 scale SE NW SW NE

19 18 18 19 32 32

23 23 21 21 20/22

31 31

a) b)

0 1 metre

WENLOCK PRIORY 1999 Fig. 3: Trench C - a) northeast-facing and b) southeast-facing sections; 1:20 scale Plate 1: Location of trench B, before excavation; looking north.

Plate 2: Trench B, after excavation; looking northwest. Plate 3: Location of trench C, before excavation; looking west.

Plate 4: Trench C, after excavation, showing wall 21; looking west.