| Description: | A large area lying to the south-east of Catherine Street, between Dodhay Street and Strike Street (the later Chapel Street), was acquired by stages, starting in the third decade of the 13th century, as the site of the Dominican friary or Blackfriars, which had been founded by 1232 and was probably designed to accommodate 36 friars. The friary was dissolved in 1538, by which time only 15 friars remained. The evidence for the history and topography of the Exeter Blackfriars (or Friars Preacher) has been drawn together and reviewed by Dr Christopher Phillpots (Philpotts 1998, with detailed references).
Very little is known of the friary layout from archaeological evidence, but it is apparent that most of Bedford House, the large mansion that occupied the friary site after the Dissolution, consisted of remodelled friary buildings. Much can be deduced from documentary sources when these are analysed in combination with a detailed plan of Bedford House prepared by the Duke of Bedford’s surveyor in 1755 (Henderson et al. 1999, Figs 10-11). Two extensive building ranges which meet at right angles in the area to the north of the main house are likely to have originated as the (liturgical) west and south monastic claustral ranges. The site of the church lies to the north of these ranges, being represented by an elongated walled close or garden aligned south-west/north-east. The form of this walled area suggests that the church was well over 60 m in length and at least 10 m wide, including an aisle on the north side of the nave. This interpretation is supported by the discovery of very substantial robbed wall foundations in evaluation trenches 19 and 20 (ibid., 26-27; Fig. 14); these features probably represent respectively the east wall of the north aisle and the south wall of the chancel. It is probable that the church also possessed a south aisle. There would have been burials within the church, in the cloister garth and in a cemetery which is documented as lying towards Catherine Street, to the south-west of a garden situated next to Dodhay Street. The garden was sampled in evaluation trenches 11 and 24 (ibid., 25, 27 Fig, 14); and an area within the cemetery investigated in trench 17 contained five inhumations lying on the same alignment as the church (ibid., 26). It is recorded that when the northern quadrant of Bedford Circus was being constructed in the 1770s ‘very many skulls and bones and various fragments of sculpture were discovered’; subsequently ‘very large quantities of carved stone, which had evidently belonged to a church, were dug up, many of the pieces being enriched with painting and gilding’ (Little, A.G. and Easterling, R.C., 1927 'The Franciscans and Dominicans of Exeter', History of Exeter Research Group Monograph No. 3, 50). Amongst that latter material was a 13th-century life-sized knight’s head, resting on a pillow and dressed in chain mail, which is now on display in the RAM Museum. Fragments of worked stone in the Bedford House demolition deposits which may have come from friary buildings were found in evaluation trenches 5 and 13 (ibid., 50). The sculpted head represents work of high quality and serves as a reminder that throughout the period of its existence the friary was the preferred burial place for a number of the gentry families of Devon.
By the beginning of the 14th century, the long section of Dodhay Street running from its junction with Catherine Street towards the city wall had probably ceased to be a public highway. The street was eventually absorbed into the Blackfriars precinct. There would have been a gate, facing towards High Street, on the Catherine Street frontage at the head of the remaining section of Dodhay Street (the later Bampfield Street). The gate was probably built in the 1270s or 80s by one William de Bickleigh, who held property at this time in part of the original Dodhay tenement and may have leased from the city council the by then almost redundant section of Dodhay Street running between the two religious precincts. The Bickleigh tenement was eventually acquired by St John’s Hospital, whilst Dodhay Street and the ‘Bickleigh Gate’ came to be occupied by the Blackfriars, who paid rent to the city council for the gate until the Dissolution.
In 1297, the Blackfriars were licensed by the city council to build a gate to close off the south-eastern portion of Strike Street; subsequently, in 1362, they were permitted to construct a gate at the head of this street, at its junction with Catherine Street. A stone-lined drain or culvert was laid along Freren Lane around 1458 which presumably connected into the main drain leading from the Blackfriars nearer to the city wall. Shortly after 1390, a new street was created by the friars which led from High Street to Catherine Street on the line of later Bedford Street. The main gate of the friary stood on Catherine Street facing down this street.
From around 1300, lay accommodation was provided within the friary precinct. In the 14th and 15th centuries the Courtenay earls of Devon had their town house in the friary grounds. At the time of the Dissolution, the marquis of Exeter is recorded as enjoying the use of a residence containing a hall, buttery and kitchen. It is probable that this accommodation can be identified with a substantial house that later formed the central element of Bedford House (Henderson et al. 1999, cover illustration). This building block stood immediately to the south of the claustral ranges, on the north-east side of Freren Lane. An area within the house was uncovered in evaluation trench 13. A garden area between the house and Strike Street was sampled in trench 32 (ibid., 30-31). |
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