More information : Chapel [GT] (In Ruins) (1)
The remains of this Chapel consist of walls as shown on O.S. The general thickness of these walls is approximately 32". The north wall is the most well preserved standing appx. 14 ft. high. A doorway some six feet high still exists in the south wall, together with a sacremental niche near the east wall; whiich is about 5 ft. high. (2)
Nuns or Canonesses. Premonstratensian at Guyzance. Dissolved or moved elsewhere before AD 1500. (3)
Premonstratensian Canonesses at Guyzance. Priory founded c1147 and dissolved before 1550. (4)
Founded by Richard Tison for nuns apparently at the time when he gave the church here to Alnwick Abbey [Northum 35 NW 2] c1147. The Prioress is mentioned in 1313. (5)
No order is mentioned, but it has been presumed that the house was Premonstratensian as it was controlled by the abbots of Alnwick. The nunnery was extinct before the 16th century. (6)
Remains of the chapel consist of a rectangular building 61 ft long by 15ft 8 ins wide including work of the 12th to the 14th century intermeshed in the modern walling. In the middle of the rectangle is some broken masonry which may represent either the west wall of a short church to which has been added a nave with south aisle, or the whole foundations may represent the original church with chancel arch dividing it into two parts. North wall contains a 12th century bricked up doorway, west wall has 13th century windows and south wall remains of a similar window, a 14th century window and piscina of 13-14th century date. (7)
Scheduled ancient monument. (8)
Description in T4(7) correct except that there is also a door with a semi-circular arch in the south wall. The walls constituting the remains of this chapel rise to a maximum height of 3.5m and are of rough dressed stone with rubble filling. There appear to have been two phases of building, but what form the chapel originally took could not be ascertained on the available evidence. The remains of two pillars suggest some form of arcading along the western part of the south wall.
Lying outside the west wall are the remains of a fluted pillar and a portion of a Medieval grave cover. The extant remains (as shown on plan) are in good condition. The floor of the chapel is paved with modern flags and there is a 19th century grave slab at the western end. The modern enclosure in which the remains stand has been used until recent times as a burial ground. To the south and south-west of this enclosure (area delimited in green) the ground is uneven, suggesting buried foundations. These earthworks may indicate the site of the conventual buildings of the priory but excavation will be necessary to prove this. (9)
(Subsequently published) Priory (NR) (Premonstratensian) (NAT). (10)
Condition of chapel unchanged. Published survey (1:2500) correct.
As suggested by F1 the uneven ground to the S and SW may indicate the
site of the conventual buildings of the priory, but there are no
coherent remains to merit survey action. (11)
Ruins of Church or Chapel. Nave late 11th or 12th century, chancel 13th or 14 century. Grade 2*. (12)
Guyzance (Brainshaugh) Priory of St Wilfrid, founded c1147-52 for Premonstratensian Canonesses, it probably became extinct at the Black Death. The Priory later became a cell for the Premonstratensian Abbey at Alnwick, it was dissolved in 1539. (13)
NU 209 032. Guyzance (or Brainshaugh) Chapel near Acklington.
Scheduled No ND/82. (14) |