Monument Type(s):

• CEMETERY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD) + Sci.Date
• CHAPEL (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)
• DOVECOTE (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)
• FISHPOND (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)
• HOSPITAL (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1540 AD)

Summary

The site of a medieval hospital, fishpond, dovecote and chapel. Excavations have indicated that a small cemetery was associated with this chapel.

Related records

Associated Finds: None recorded

Associated Events

• ESA2010 - 1960 field observation by the Ordnance Survey
• ESA2012 - 1993 evaluation of proposed flood alleviation scheme at Frankwell and Greyfriars, Shrewsbury by Giffords & Partners Ltd
• ESA6025 - 2005 Evaluation and WB at Shrewsbury NEV by GGAT
• ESA7197 - 2006-2007 Archaeological Investigations at the Old Welsh Bridge, Frankwell Quay, Shrewsbury by MOLA
• ESA7943 - 2005 DBA on NEV (Theatre Severn site) by Nigel Baker

Description

History: Founded in 1162 [very early-IB comment] and dissolved in 1465. St George's, being then a free chapel, was annexed to St John's Hospital (SA 1430) <1a>
The chapel of St George (and the hospital of St John of Jerusalem) is mentioned in 1278 and 1307. Last mention is in 1448 and the chapel appears to have passed soon afterwards to the Colle family and it was taken down before 1563 <1b>
An anchorite is listed at the chapel <1c>
A 1601-2 grant mentions The Stew - possibly a fishpond <1d>
Two fields called Le Stewhouse Croft and Le Culverhouse Croft indicating the site of fishponds and a dovecote <1e>
There is confusion over the identity of this site. It may be that the hospital was St John's Hospital, and this site is simply St George's Chapel. However, Speed's Map of 1610 shows St George's Almshouses just north of the site of St George's Bridge [OS Records comments 1960] <1>

The hospital was probably founded before 1155 - when the St George's Bridge (the Old Welsh Bridge, mon. 62403) was first recorded. It is not referred to as a hospital after the early 13th century, but merely as a chapel, so its function may have changed. The Cole family who had land in the area granted a rent charge to the chaplain of St George and his successors to endow a family chantry in 1278. St George's was said to have been annexed to St John's Hospital in 1463, but two years later one of the Cole family demised it to St John's for a family chantry and reserved the right to appoint priests to it. It was demolished by 1564 and the site, next to the Welsh Bridge, remained in the Cole family until the 18th century [<4>]. The site appears to be a classic 12th-century foundation, a hospital, latterly a chapel, in close proximity to a major town bridge. There appears to be no information on its form, though sandstone walls were reported in 1996 in service trenches dug across the road at about the mapped location, between the Qwik Save site and the old bridge site. <5>

Evaluated for MPP in 1990-1, Medium score as one of 10 Hospitals <6>

It is possible that St George's Hospital and St John's Hospital may have been the same establishment, with different parts of the hospital under the control of different patrons at different times. A series of charters from the 13th and 14th centuries indicate a long battle for control between the Cole and Pigot families [<4>] <7>

Archaeological evaluation carried out at the site of the proposed new entertainment venue in Shrewsbury during May and June 2005. Archaeological deposits relating to the St George’s Hospital were discovered in trench 7. The evaluation located a human grave, the character and orientation of which would suggest is of some antiquity. Documentary evidence has indicated the medieval hospital, chapel and cemetery of St George was located close to St George’s Bridge and so it is likely that the burial indicated the location of the hospital cemetery. The findings provided a good indication of the location and minimum extent of St George’s Hospital and Frankwell Quay and also indicated that a large amount of masonry relating to these structures survives on the site, both above and below ground level. <8>

Full report on the 2005 assessment, evaluation and watching brief on the New Entertainment Venue (NEV) site. Includes a discussion of the fieldwork (<8a>), further documentary research [see also <8d>] <8b> and specialist finds reports (<8c>). <8a><8b><8c>

Detailed historical background research was undertaken in 2005 ahead of and in conjunction with the evaluation (see <8>) of the site of the New Entertainment Venue (NEV). This included an assessment of the layout, architecture, engineering and construction of St George's Hospital, as recorded by the documentary and cartographic evidence. ->

-> St George's Hospital must have been founded before c.1160 by which time the name was attached to the bridge. In all probability it was a fairly recent foundation, one of hundreds of hospitals founded in similar suburban or liminal locations in English towns in the course of the 12th century. After the early 13th century most references to it mention only the chapel. The wealthy Cole family, who owned extensive property in the vicinity, endowed a family chantry there in 1278 and seems to have appropriated it by the 15th century. The chapel had been demolished by 1564. ->

-> What locational information there is suggests that St George's Chapel stood a short distance north-east of the end of the bridge, although the evidence is described as deeply confusing. Two references to the cemetery have been found. In 1493 a stagnum (usually a fishpond, probably the stew in Steweroft) was leased by the Drapers. It lay outside the Welsh Gate and abutted the cemetery of St George. A second lease of 1573, of an orchard and a pond in it called le Stew; also referred to the cemetery as one of its boundaries. There is no indication as to whether the cemetery was in active use or was merely a historic landmark known to all. <8d>

Five supine burials were revealed during excavations to the east of the approach road to the Old Welsh Bridge, interpreted as part of the hospital chapel cemetery. One burial was radiocarbon dated to 1260-1320 and 1350-1390. <9>

The excavations of part of the hospital cemetery are referred to in a post-excavation assessment of the 2005-2007 excavations on the site of the Theatre Severn, including initial osteological assessment. ->

-> By 1155 the Hospital of St George was in existence to the north-east of the Welsh Gate (its location can be established with some precision from a deed of 1476), but its exact spatial relationship with the areas excavated remains to be determined. For instance, it may have been situated some distance back from the street frontage. It was referred to in an early 13th-century indulgence as a hospital, but thereafter it was generally referred to as a chapel, which may indicate that its role changed during the late 13th century. In 1278 a chantry was established at the chapel by the Cole family, who owned a lot of land in Frankwell and claimed during the 15th century that they owned the chapel. The five supine burials discovered to the east of the bridge approach road are interpreted as part of the (undocumented?) hospital cemetery attached to its chapel. One these burials [925] has been radiocarbon dated to c AD 1260-1390. The Old Welsh Bridge (PRN 01471) was also known as St George’s Bridge because of its proximity to the hospital. It has been suggested that Richard Pigot (died c 1369), Warden of the neighbouring Hospital of St John the Baptist, may have annexed St George’s chapel to also serve his own institution, as his will stipulated he was to be buried in the chapel of St John and St George, which implies that an ecclesiastical merger had taken place. ->

-> In 1463 St George’s Hospital was either taken over by or merged with the neighbouring Hospital of St John (the exact location of this hospital is uncertain, but it was probably situated on the same side of the bridge approach road as St George’s, but slightly further north). It appears that St George’s chapel may have been closed before the Dissolution, as it is not mentioned in the hospital estate during this period. In 1523 some part of St John’s Hospital building apparently including its chapel was leased. In 1564 it is documented that the Cole family were in possession of ‘all that void place or ground’ formerly St George’s chapel ‘nigh the Welsh Gate’. This plot of land extended from ‘Cole’s Almshouses’ to ‘the king’s highway leading towards the Severn’. This confirms that St George’s Hospital chapel had been demolished by this date, but it also shows that part of St John’s Hospital survived the Dissolution as almshouses, which remained until the 17th century. The history of these two hospitals because of their very close proximity and later relationship is difficult to untangle. St John’s Hospital the existence of which was not recorded until the 1220s was clearly the later of the two institutions. <10>

Full report on the investigation at the Old Welsh Bridge, published in Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological and Historical Society in 2015. Includes extensive reports on the background history of the site, tracing the development of the area from the 11th century through to the 21st century. Incorporates a number of specialist reports on the material from the site. ->

-> The documentary and archaeological evidence for St Geaorge's Hospital is discussed in detail. The Welsh Bridge was also known as St George's Bridge because of its proximity to a hospital named after the saint, which had been established along the eastern side of the bridge approach road by c 1155. Fieldwork revealed inhumation burials, one of which was radiocarbon-dated to the late 13th or 14th century; these graves are believed to be part of the hospital cemetery. It appears that during the 13th or 14th century a substantial masonry building was constructed within the street frontage of the hospital cemetery. <11>

Sources

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