The Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust
Historic Environment Record
 

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Gatehouse, Llanthony Priory

Primary Reference Number (PRN) : 01740g
Trust : Glamorgan Gwent
Community : Crucorney
Unitary authority : Monmouthshire
NGR : SO2870227868
Site Type (preferred type first) : Medieval Gatehouse
Status : Site Cared for by the State

Summary :
The gatehouse provided access to the outer precinct of Llanthony Priory through wide arches; there were rooms in the upper storey. Built in 14th century. Converted into a barn after the Dissolution; this involved extending the building.

Description :
One of the surviving building of Llanthony Priory (PRN 01720g). Of the Decorated period. The side walls are 4.0m high with buttresses at the corners of the east side. The entrance arch in the south face is blocked. The arch in the north face is not blocked and forms a junction with a modern extension. The whole building has been converted into a barn with a modern roof. Internally fragments of the springing for a vaulted roof are still visible and there is a small blocked doorway in the west wall. (OS card SO 22 NE).

Situated 150 yards (137m) west of the priory church, and clearly part of a complex of buildings, which extend to the west and southwest but are too ruined to allow for much interpretation. Built in the early 14th century. The gable end towards the road has a two-centred arch occupying the full width, surmounted by a group of three trefoiled lancets. Internally it originally consisted of a smaller outer section and a larger inner section, both vaulted but the dividing wall and the vaults have been demolished. The inner section had another full-width arch to the precinct. Traces of lodgings with fireplaces and windows in the upper storey. (Newman 2000, 330)

The History of the Priory Church (PRN 02018g; NPRN 222,262), a Listed building, grade I (ref. 2123) is covered in detail elsewhere (see above), following its surrender to the Crown in 1536, the conventual church, until then only partly used as a parish church, was converted in full to parish use. The building was found to be too large and the presbytery and S transept, surplus to requirement, were demolished or allowed to collapse. The N transept was spared and later became a school, whilst the crossing below the tower was used for many years as a barn. In 1544 the sites of the presbytery, S transept and the adjoining conventual buildings to the S, and the remaining Priory lands were sold. Excavations in 1964, within the Garden of Rest identified the N and S walls of the chancel (Mein 1993), whilst further excavations carried out in 1987 investigated site of the presbytery the monastic cemetery close by.

These excavations revealed the line of a N-S robbed out wall, 9.5m in length on the line of the boundary between the Garden of Rest and the Dukes Yard, indicating that the presbytery would have measured 22.6m in length, the same as the medieval nave, and therefore the church would have had a symmetrical plan. The work also established the extent of the monastic cemetery, and identified 73 burials believed to date from between the 13th and 16th centuries, while revealing a concentration of burials near presbytery and the High Alter (Maylan 1993 29-42). Archaeological work has also identified the full extent of the Priory's N transept, locating its NE corner 6.15m N of the vestry (Mein 1994; Bowden and Roberts 2012).

Remains of the conventual buildings of the Benedictine Nunnery at Usk are considered to form part of the central NE-SW range of the 16th century House known as the Priory (PRN 2016g), a grade II, listed building (ref. 2125; Bowden and Roberts 2012). The full extent of the Priory precinct, based on historic mapping (Tithe 1846) appears to have been an L-shaped enclosure extending from Maryport Street in the W to Church Street, Priory Street, and Four Ash Street in the N and E, the S of the area bound by curved boundary, followed by the track known as Pook Lane (Bowden and Roberts 2012). Much of the Priory precinct has been lost to development during the 20th century; the W side of the precinct has been lost to the Priory Gardens Estate, whilst the areas to the N and E have also seen urban encroachment (Bowden and Roberts 2012).

Sources :
Newman, J , 2000 , The buildings of Wales: Gwent/Monmouthshire
Roberts G. , 1846 , Llanthony Priory, Monmouthshire , Archaeologia Cambrensis : I : 201-245
The Handley Partnership , HAAbase built heritage assessment system: Buildings at Risk database

Events :
E002119 : Assessment of Monastic Sites in Glamorgan and Gwent (year : 2012)
E004073 : Field Visit to Llanthony Priory Gatehouse (year : 2011)
E008394 : Court Farm, Llanthony, Monmouthshire (year : 2021)

Related records
GGAT Historic Environment Record (HER) 01720g

Compiled date : 02-12-1988


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