Dunstable Friary was a Dominican friary in

Dunstable Dunstable ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Bedfordshire, England, east of the Chiltern Hills, north of London. There are several steep chalk escarpments, most noticeable when approaching Dunstable from the north. Dunstable is the ...

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. It was located to the west of

Watling Street Watling Street is a historic route in England that crosses the River Thames at London and which was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the Middle Ages. It was used by the ancient Britons and paved as one of the main ...

, between the present-day High Street South and the road that is called ''Friary Field''. The " Black Friars" came to Dunstable in 1259. The Augustine canons of

Dunstable Priory The Priory Church of St Peter with its monastery (Dunstable Priory) was founded in 1132 by Henry I for Augustinian Canons in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England. St Peter's today is only the nave of what remains of an originally much larger Augu ...

, who themselves were facing economic hardship at the time, were not welcoming towards the Dominicans. The prioress of Markyate, though her own house was not a wealthy one, helped the friars with a dole of loaves until their church should be finished; a kindness ill-repaid, for they insisted on the continuance of the gift after the immediate necessity was passed, and when the nuns were almost as poor as themselves. The grounds were surrendered in 1539. Parts of the site were excavated in the 1920s. From 1965 to 1967, the Manshead Archaeological Society carried out excavations of the monastic buildings, during which the Dunstable Swan Jewel was discovered. Parts of the church were excavated by the Department of the Environment in 1972 and by Bedfordshire County Council in 1988.R. Clark and A. Maull, "Dunstable Friary Excavations 1988", ''Journal of the Manshead Archaeological Society'', 29, 26-28, 1989.

References

External links

The Medieval Dunstable project website has sections o
Friary History
an

Monasteries in Bedfordshire Dominican monasteries in England 1259 establishments in England 1536 disestablishments in England Archaeological sites in Bedfordshire Christian monasteries established in the 13th century {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub

See also

References

External links