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 fou ...
,
Bedfordshire
Bedfordshire (; abbreviated ''Beds'') is a Ceremonial County, ceremonial county in the East of England. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Cambridgeshire to the north-east, Hertfordshire to the south and the south-east, and Buckin ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. It was located to the west of
Watling Street
Watling Street is a historic route in England, running from Dover and London in the southeast, via St Albans to Wroxeter. The road crosses the River Thames at London and was used in Classical Antiquity, Late Antiquity, and throughout the M ...
, 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 Au ...
, who themselves were facing economic hardship at the time, were not welcoming towards the Dominicans. The prioress of
Markyate
Markyate () is a village and civil parishes in England, civil parish in north-west Hertfordshire, close to the border with Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire.
Geography
The name of the village has had several former variants, including ''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
The Dunstable Swan Jewel is a gold and vitreous enamel, enamel brooch in the form of a swan made in England or France in about 1400 and now in the British Museum, where it is on display in Room 40. The jewel was excavated in 1965 on the site of D ...
was discovered. Parts of the church were excavated by the Department of the Environment
An environmental ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for the environment and/or natural resources. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry 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.]
See also
* List of monastic houses in Bedfordshire
The following is a list of the monastic houses in Bedfordshire, England.
Alien houses are included, as are smaller establishments such as Monastic cell, cells and notable monastic granges (particularly those with resident monks), and also ca ...
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 1250s
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