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Archaeology Warwickshire | |
| Warwick Priory/County Record Office 2002/3 | |
| Between February 2002 and March 2003 excavation and recording directed by Nicholas Palmer took place on behalf of Warwickshire County Council Property Services in advance of a project, partly funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, to extend the Warwickshire County Record Office. The Record Office lies within the site of the medieval St Sepulchre’s Priory, a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and the extension scheme had been carefully designed to cause the minimum of archaeological disturbance. Partly as a result most of the structural remains revealed related to the 16th/17th-century mansion house which succeeded the priory rather than to the priory itself. This house which had been occupied by Henry Wise, Royal gardener to Queen Anne, and Thomas Lloyd of the banking family, was mainly demolished in 1925, and much of the structure was exported to America and re-erected in Richmond, Virginia for the Virginia Historical Society. | |
 A medieval floor tile from Warwick Priory. | |
| The new extensions to the west and south partly covered areas excavated in 1971 when the existing Record Office was built. Excavation in an undisturbed area to the west revealed a medieval pit and a stone-lined well with medieval pottery in its construction pit. Cutting these features were the foundations of the 16th/17th-century hall range of the mansion house (see photo right). This contained a stone built cellar, later subdivided with a thin stone wall and floored in brick. It was lit by a bay window to the west. The foundation of another bay window was found to the north. Running south from the cellar under the hall was a 19th-century brick-lined passage of uncertain function. Also to the south were the foundations of the main entrance steps to the mansion house which showed signs of remodelling in the 19th century. Excavations in the courtyard to the west revealed only post-medieval remains. | |
 Warwick Priory 2002. Excavation of 17th century cellar. | |
| Excavation under the northern extension revealed a medieval pit and a layer cut by the north gable end of the hall range of the mansion house (se photo right). This was represented by two phases of foundations on slightly different alignments, perhaps reflecting an original, late 16th-century range and the rebuilding recorded in c.1611. To the east there were walls belonging to a probably 16th/17th-century outbuilding demolished in the 1860s. To the north the stripping penetrated to a late 19th-century brick yard surface, but over most of the area the bottom of the 1925 demolition layers were not reached. | |
 Warwick Priory 2002. Excavated foundations of the north gable wall. | |
| Earthmoving for the southern extension revealed the partial remains of two monastic burials within the area of the 1971 excavation (see photo right). One of these, in a stone-lined grave, had been excavated in 1971, but left in situ. The foundations and cellars of the 18th-century southern wing of the mansion house lay to the north. | |
 Warwick Priory 2002. Monastic burials in foundation trench. | |
A gas pipe trench cut across the former north range of the mansion house revealed its north wall and a possible external stair foundation. Further trenching along the north edge of the site westwards revealed a layer with 13th- to 15th-century pottery, covered by 3-4m of post-medieval landscaping topped by 19th-century driveway and yard surfaces. Recording within the Priory Bungalow, the surviving south range of the mansion house, showed that, apart from some 1950s partitions which were removed, the existing scheme related to a refurbishment dating probably to the 1860s, which established one panelled room to the east, with a replacement fireplace and stained glass in the bay window, a large central panelled room, with another new fireplace, created by linking two former rooms by a wide arch, and, a newly partitioned-off, unpanelled room beyond. Removal of the 1860s panelling resulted in the discovery of an earlier scheme of painted trompe l’oeil panelling in the former eastern central room, probably of 18th- or early 19th-century date. Beneath this plaster was earlier plasterwork coated in limewash relating to an earlier arrangement of the range into one or two rooms. The range may have been built up against an earlier phase of Priory House to the west, suggesting that Priory House may have originated as a detached pavilion. The post-excavation programme for this site will involve publication of an account of the 1971 excavations. |
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Warwick Priory, drawings of early 17th-century blue and white Dutch tiles from the mansion house. |
Archaeology Warwickshire, Warwickshire Historic and Natural Environment The Butts, Warwick, CV34 4SS Tel: 01926 412280/412278 Fax: 01926 412974 Email: fieldarchaeology@warwickshire.gov.uk |
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