Gisborough Priory

Gisborough Priory is a ruined former Augustinian priory in the town of Guisborough, now in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England. It was founded in 1119 as the Priory of St. Mary by Robert de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale, an ancestor of the Scottish king Robert the Bruce. It became one of the richest monastic foundations in England with the aid of grants from the Crown and bequests from de Brus and other local nobles and gentry, as well as many local people of more modest means. Much of the Romanesque Norman priory was destroyed in a catastrophic fire in 1289. It was rebuilt in the Gothic style on a much grander scale over the following century. Its remains are regarded as being among the finest surviving examples of early Gothic architecture.^[1]

The priory prospered until the last phase of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540, when it was abolished along with all of England's other monastic communities. The priory buildings were soon demolished and the stone was re-used in many other buildings in Guisborough. The east end was left standing with its great window forming a distinctive arch shape, a well-known landmark which is often used as a symbol of Guisborough. It became part of the estate of the local Chaloner family, who acquired it in 1550. The east window was preserved by them as part of a Romantic vista adjoining their seat, Gisborough Hall, from which the priory takes its idiosyncratically spelled modern name. It is still owned by the Chaloners but is now in the care of English Heritage as a listed building.

History

Establishment

The town of Guisborough was already well-established at the time of the Priory's founding. A priest, a church and a mill were recorded in the Domesday Book as being present in 1086. Following the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror gave lands in the area to the Count of Mortain. He in turn passed them on to his friend Robert de Brus, Lord of Skelton, who was one of the largest landowners in the North and possessed over 40,000 acres (160 km²) in Yorkshire alone.^[2] The region was, however, in a severely economically depressed state caused by the devastating Harrying of the North carried out by William following the Conquest. Consequently there were few monasteries north of the River Humber and ample opportunities existed for new agricultural and religious developments.^[3] The Augustinian monastic order first came to England at the start of the 12th century and soon established a number of houses around England, including major ones at Bridlington, Nostell and Kirkham.^[4] They were not monks as such but lived as communities of canons living under the rule of St. Augustine, wearing dark robes that earned them the nickname of the "Black Canons".^[1]

Robert de Brus "founded a certain Monastery of a religious order in Gysburne [sic], to the honour of God, and the holy Virgin Mary", as the founding charter of the Priory puts it. He gave "to the same Church and the service of God in it, all Gysburne, with all things pertaining thereto it".^[5] This included lands amounting to twenty carucates and two oxgangs (roughly equivalent to about 2,500 acres (10 km²)), churches, mills and other possessions of de Brus, along with grants from others. The charter started that this endowment was to provide "material for ever for their buildings, and all other necessities of their house."^[6] The foundation was authorised by Pope Calixtus II and Thurstan, Archbishop of York. De Brus may well have been emulating his peers in Yorkshire, who had already founded their own monastic institutions as a focus for their religious obligations.^[7] The actual date of the foundation is unclear. The 14th-century canon and historian Walter of Guisborough gives the date as 1129, but a charter of confirmation from Pope Calixtus dates to the period of his pontificate between 1119–24.^[3] It appears that the priory had two foundation charters, a shorter one dating possibly to 1119 and a longer and more detailed one dating to 1129, and it may have been that the latter one was later taken to be the definitive document.^[3]

The rights and privileges of the prior and canons grew further over the following centuries with royal grants. Henry III granted them the lucrative rights of sac and soc, thol and theam and infangtheof. He also established a Monday market at Guisborough and the right to hold a three-day fair every year to mark the Assumption (15 August). The proceeds and fees from these events were used to support the priory. The prior and canons were also granted free warren in the lands around Guisborough and several nearby villages. This right was extended to more demesnes by Edward III, who permitted them to convert an 80 acres (320,000 m²) lot of land into a deer park (now Park Wood, just outside Guisborough). Henry IV gave them the twice-yearly right of frankpledge and the additional right of waif and stray and the return of briefs and writs. These grants gave the priory a steady income from rents, fines, licences and other fees. As well as enjoying income from these sources, the canons of Guisborough owned 4,000 sheep, mostly in Eskdale, in the 13th and 14th century.^[8]

The priory became widely known for its canons' strict observance of the Augustinian rule and religious precepts. Their reputation for ducentes canonicam vitam ("living a canonical life") attracted the attention of Saint Malachy of Ireland who, as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux later recorded, had a close and long-standing involvement with Gisborough Priory.^[9][10] The canons were closely associated with the Cistercians who, like the Augustianians, had a reformist outlook. One Guisborough canon, William of Newminster, moved to the Cistercian Fountains Abbey to become its abbot.^[11] They were widely supported by the local people and records survive of numerous small grants, particularly related to the use of the almonry (the place or chamber where alms were distributed to the poor) and to the support of building work. The canons leased, bought and sold land as well as loaning money using property grants as collateral to benefit the priory's building fund.^[12] As the priory became more wealthy, however, the discipline of its canons began to slip and the Archbishops of York found it necessary to take corrective action by the late 13th century. A number of canons were sent to Kirkham and Bridlington for correction and Gisborough in turn took in disobedient canons from other places.^[13]

On 16 May 1289, the priory suffered a catastrophic fire. According to an account by Walter of Guisborough, a plumber soldering holes in the lead roof forgot to put out his fire, causing the roof timbers to catch fire and the leads to melt down into the church below. Much of the building was destroyed and many of its effects, including costly books, chalices and vestments, were lost in the blaze. Most of the nave and all of the chancel had to be rebuilt with the continued support of the de Brus family, whose coat of arms was prominently displayed on the priory buildings.^[14] The canons immediately sought to raise funds for rebuilding. They petitioned the king to grant them the advowsons of the parish churches of Barnham, Easington and Heslarton, and in 1309 and 1311 the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Durham rewarded the priory's donors with indulgences granting remission of temporal punishment for sins.^[15]

The rebuilding probably took around a century to complete. Work was slowed by the high costs of the project and the civil unrest of the early 14th century, when Scottish raiders repeatedly plundered the north of England. The priory's lands were reduced in value by the raids, diminishing its income.^[16] Its wealth was tapped by Archbishop Melton of York to make good his own losses in 1319, and in 1320 it had to take in refugees from other monastic houses that had been forced to disperse to escape the raiders.^[17] Probably as a consequence of the troubles, the priory petitioned the king in 1328 to be exempted from the "clerical tenth" (a 10% tax on clerical property) and in 1344 it was granted permission to fortify its buildings. By 1380 its staff had diminished to twenty-six canons and two lay brothers.^[18]

The Yorkshire line of the de Brus family died out with the death of the childless Peter IV de Brus in 1272. However, the priory continued to be patronised by the local nobility. The Fauconberg and Thweng families, who had married Peter's sisters Agnes and Lucia, took over the patronage and continued it for several centuries afterwards. Many prominent local nobles were buried there, as was the Scottish Robert V de Brus, the grandfather of King Robert the Bruce. At least nine successive patrons and their families were buried in the priory between 1295 and 1411, indicating that they saw it as the grandest (and therefore most esteemed) burial site available to them.^[19] It received substantial financial support from its patrons; for instance, in 1381 William, Lord Latimer provided for the completion of the north nave of the priory and donated the sum of £333 6s 8d (roughly equivalent to £1.6 million today) for the construction of a new belfry. He also left to them his cattle from his manor at Ugthorpe and bequeathed to them a range of religious items, as well as making arrangements for his body to be interred at the priory on his death.^[20]

Dissolution and after

In 1533 Henry VIII of England was excommunicated for divorcing Catherine of Aragon. In response he had the Act of Supremacy passed in 1534 which established his supremacy over the church in England and declared Henry to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England. The church's estate in England thus became part of the king's estate and in 1535 Henry ordered the Valor Ecclesiasticus, a comprehensive survey of the church's property. It found that Gisborough Priory had an annual net value of £628.6s.8d., which made it the fourth wealthiest monastic house in Yorkshire. In 1536 all monasteries with less than £200 of annual income were suppressed but the priory's wealth meant that it was exempt from this first wave of suppression.^[15]

The Valor was followed by a second survey, carried out by the King's commissioners Thomas Legh and Richard Leyton. It provided for the final suppression of the monasteries on charges of a lack of quality of religious life.^[21] Prior James Cockerell of Guisborough was forced to resign and was replaced with Robert Pursglove, who was seen as more loyal to the new government. The priory's dissolution was not welcomed by the locals, who derived considerable economic benefit from its presence – in 1536, around 500 families in Guisborough depended on the priory for their livelihoods.^[22] The strength of local feeling was recorded in a letter from Lord Conyers and Sir John Bulmer to Thomas Cromwell: "On Sunday, 11th  July [1539], at Gysburn in Yorkshire, when the parish priest was declaring the articles [of dissolution] directed by the King to the Archbishop of York, one John Atkeynson alias Brotton came violently and took book forth of the priest's hands, and pulled it in pieces."^[23] Popular discontent with the dissolution of the monasteries sparked a major uprising, the Pilgrimage of Grace, in which the former Prior Cockerell was implicated; when the revolt failed he was hanged at Tyburn along with the Prior of Bridlington, the Abbot of Jervaulx and the former Abbot of Fountains.^[22]

The Priory was formally dissolved on 8 April 1540 and was surrendered to the King's men on 22 December 1540, making it one of the last monastic houses in England to be suppressed.^[22] A proposal to found a secular college at the former priory came to nothing and the priory buildings – with the exception of the gatehouses and the great east window – were soon demolished. On 21 November 1541 Thomas Legh was granted a lease "of the buildings with the site and precincts of the Priory to be then demolished and carried away."^[24] The demolition was carried out by collapsing the central tower of the priory into the body of the church, crushing it in its fall and reducing the building to a pile of rubble.^[24]

The site and lands were subsequently re-let in 1550 to Sir Thomas Chaloner, who later purchased the property outright.^[24] The Chaloners first occupied the former priors' quarters in the west range before moving in the late 17th century to their new mansion, Old Gisborough Hall, on Bow Street. The remains of the priory were cleared away and the fallen stonework was either looted or sold. The grounds were redeveloped as formal gardens within the extensive grounds of Old Gisborough Hall.^[22] John Walker Ord, a local historian in the mid-19th century, described how the priory's stonework could be seen in many buildings around Guisborough. He deplored the profane uses to which it had been put:

I have seen with my own eyes broken pillars and pedestals of this august pile desecrated to the vile uses of gateposts, stands for rainwater casks, and stepping-stones over a common sewer. A richly ornamented doorway of the venerable priory forms the entrance to a privy. I have beheld with sorrow, shame, and indignation, the richly ornamented columns and carved architraves of God's temple supporting the thatch of a pig-house.^[25]

Some fragments of Gisborough Priory travelled considerably further afield. At Hardwick Hall near Sedgefield, a mock ruin was built incorporating sculptured stones brought from the site of the priory.^[26] The wealth of the priory became the stuff of local legends, one of which claims that an underground passage leads from the priory to a cave under the hills in which a raven stands guard over a chest of gold.^[27]

The priory's lands around Guisborough became the source of considerable wealth for the Chaloners. Around 1595, Sir Thomas Chaloner's son, also called Thomas, established England's first alum works at Belman Bank just south of Guisborough. Alum was a very important product at that time with a variety of industrial uses. It was especially important to the English cloth industry as a mordant (a substance used to fix dyes on cloth).^[28] The supply of alum was controlled by a cartel controlled by the Papal States and Spain. Both were in conflict with England but were able to exercise a virtual monopoly on the provision of alum to Christian Europe, as the importation of cheaper Turkish alum had been banned under Pope Paul II in the mid-15th century.^[29] A widely reported story states that Chaloner visited the Pope's alum works at Tolfa near Rome,^[27] While there, Chaloner noticed that the soil and vegetation in the area of the alum works resembled those of his estate at Guisborough. On his return he established his own alum works at Belman Bank with the aid of workmen smuggled from Rome, earning him a papal excommunication.^[27] John Walker Ord casts doubt on this story, noting that an account published a few decades afterwards states that the workmen actually came from France and does not mention Chaloner's travels in Italy.^[30]

The only substantial part of Gisborough Priory to survive in anything like its original form was the eastern gable of the presbytery with its great east window. This survival owed much to the rise of Romanticism in the 18th century. The portrayal of ruined buildings in idealised landscapes by J. M. W. Turner and his contemporaries inspired a fashion for the local nobility and gentry to produce their own paintings of local monasteries. This provided an incentive for landowners to preserve them as romantic ruins, rather than using them as quarries. Gisborough Priory's east window was one of the first examples of a monastic ruin to be retained for its visual qualities. It was incorporated into the grounds of Old Gisborough Hall to serve as a romantic ruin and the sill of the great window was removed to ensure an uninterrupted view.^[31][16]

A manicured lawn, known as the East Lawn, was laid out in front of the east window and was used for grand bazaars and fêtes until as late as the early 20th century. A ha-ha was installed behind the east window to keep cattle out of the priory grounds.^[32] To the south of the priory buildings a terrace, known as the Long Terrace, ran almost the full length of the priory grounds. It afforded access to the priory ruins via a flight of steps flanked by two carved demi-sea wolves, reflecting the coat of arms of the Chaloners. They were mistakenly thought to be dragons by local people and the steps were referred to as the Dragon Steps.^[33]

Old Gisborough Hall was pulled down around 1825 and the Chaloners built a new mansion house, the current Gisborough Hall, about half a mile to the east in 1857.^[22] In 1932, Thomas Chaloner, 2nd Baron Gisborough transferred control of the priory to the Office of Works. It later became the responsibility of the Ministry of Works, then the Department of the Environment and finally English Heritage from 1984.^[22][34] It remains the property of Lord Gisborough; English Heritage is responsible for maintaining the ruins, while the day-to-day running is in the charge of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.^[35]

According to local folklore, the priory is haunted by the ghost of a monk in a black habit who returns to the ruins annually to check that the priory's buried treasure has not been disturbed. He is said to arrive at midnight on the year's first new moon to lower a ghostly drawbridge spanning a vanished moat. In 1966 and 1967 a hundred people turned out to watch for the black monk and allegedly managed to spot a cowled figure, but in 1968 the few spectators who turned up saw nothing.^[36][37]

Description of the priory buildings

The priory church

The priory church only survives today in a fragmentary state, dominated by the nearly intact east wall of the presbytery that still stands to its full height. The eastern gable wall is dominated by a great east window and is regarded as one of the finest examples of late 13th century church architecture. Its design is so close to that of the eastern arm of Ripon Cathedral, which was built around the same time, that it is thought to have been directly modelled on Ripon's design. The window's tracery has disappeared, as has its sill, but it can be deduced from the stubs and surviving fragments that it had seven major lights (the glazed openings in the window). At its centre was a great circle of tracery filled with trefoiled lights. The main gable of the east wall is flanked with a pair of massive buttresses, each capped with gables and octagonal pinnacles. A similar pair of pinnacles top the main gable, flanking a window of unusual design; a bracket projects from the lower lobe to support a large statue (no longer present), possibly of the Virgin Mary, to whom the priory was dedicated.^[38]

Little remains above ground of the rest of the priory, but much can be deduced from the surviving stonework. In its final form the priory had a nave of eight bays and a quire and presbytery of nine bays, with a total length of 107 metres (351 ft). The survival of the east wall allows us to deduce that the ridge line of the roof stood 29.6 metres (97 ft) above ground.^[39] The presbytery's arcades were supported by eight clustered shafts, the bases of which are still visible, with capitals carved with naturalistic foliage. The clerestory and triforium were combined into a single arch with the main arcade below. The presbytery's high vault was executed in stone with bosses decorated in red and white paint and gold leaf, traces of which were still visible when several of the bosses were found in the 19th century. The eastern bay of the presbytery was divided into a number of chapels and the remnants of parclose screens are still visible on the main aisle's north and south responds. The main altar would have stood a short distance to the west, behind a tall screen.^[40]

At the angle of each aisle, a spiral staircase – still visible on each side of the surviving east wall – gave access to a passages inside the walls and to secondary stairs within the angles of the main gable. This enabled access to all parts of the building for maintenance and cleaning without requiring scaffolding. Nothing now remains of the north or south transepts, which projected beyond the present boundary wall into what is now the graveyard of the modern Saint Nicholas' Church next door.^[40]

A number of burials (presumably of high-ranking benefactors and clergy) were made within the priory building and several stone coffins were recovered by 19th century excavators. They are visible today against the east wall, but unfortunately their original location was not recorded and is not known. A pair of centrally placed grave slabs are still visible in a central location below the east window.^[40] In addition to the graves, the priory once also housed the Brus cenotaph, a memorial erected in 1521. It was removed from the priory in 1540 and was dismantled. It was reassembled in the 19th century and is now displayed in Saint Nicholas' Church.^[41]

Ranges and cloister

The fragments of several other buildings associated with the priory can also be seen on the site. There was a substantial cloister measuring 36.5 metres (120 ft) square to the south side of the priory church, surrounded by domestic buildings or ranges. They replaced an earlier cloister and ranges that had been destroyed in the fire of 1289 but were quickly rebuilt to a new, larger, design.^[42] Processional doors along the cloister's north wall gave access to the nave of the priory church. In 1854, surviving arches and columns from the cloister were taken to London to be displayed in the Crystal Palace where they were used as the basis for a reconstruction of a medieval cloister in the "English National Art Court" section of the exhibition.^[43]

Little now remains of the cloister but significant fragments of the west range – known as the cellarer's range – are still extant. It would have been entered from the west by an outer parlour, projecting outwards from the north end of the range, where members of the priory community could receive visitors. The Prior himself would have lived on the missing upper floor of the range, which comprised a hall, chamber and chapel dedicated to Saint Hilda. The prior's rooms were most probably located above the outer parlour, as was the pattern at other monasteries, which would have given him access to both the cloister and the outside world.^[44]

The largest surviving fragment of the range comprises a cellarium or storehouse where the priory's supplies would have been kept. This consists of a vaulted undercroft of nine bays constructed from ashlar with a floor level set below that of the cloister. It is relatively well-preserved and is believed to have originally been divided by timber partitions. These were later replaced in stone.^[45]

Most of the refectory (dining hall) range to the south of the cloister and the dorter range to the east, which contained the chapter house and dormitory, have yet to be excavated. Only the western end of the refectory range has been excavated; it presents a vaulted undercroft, three bays of which survive, above which the refectory itself would have been located on the first floor.^[45] A service passage also survives leading between the site of the kitchen and the refectory. The western part of the undercroft was used as a buttery during the late Middle Ages but would have had severely restricted headroom due to its raised flood.^[46]

Outer buildings

The priory buildings stood at the centre of a walled monastic precinct arranged in two courts, inner and outer. Gatehouses stood at the entrances to both courts; the remains of the great gate of the inner court are still extant but the outer gatehouse no longer survives. The gate originally comprised an outer porch, an inner gatehall and a porter's lodge on the ground floor with chambers above the arch. It survived intact as late as the early 18th century but only the outer porch remains today.^[47]

The structure consists of a single large round-headed archway on the outer side with two smaller arches of different sizes a few metres to the south, both deeply rebated to accommodate doors. The larger arch was for wagons while pedestrians entered through the smaller arch. Little now remains of the gatehall or the porter's lodge; the only remnants now visible are the stub of the lodge's north wall and a latrine shaft.^[48]

The canons also constructed an octagonal dovecote a short distance to the west of the west range to provide them The dovecote is still extant, though it cannot currently be visited and is not part of the priory grounds.^[1] Built in the 14th century, the dovecote was modified in the mid-18th century with the addition of a pyramidal roof tiled with Welsh slate and capped with an open-sided timber cupola. The original nesting boxes have been removed and the dovecote is now used as a garden store.^[49]

Older buildings on the site

Gisborough Priory was rebuilt three times during its life; the ruins visible today are principally those of the third and final rebuild. The site had already been occupied in Saxon times by at least one previous structure, possibly an timber-framed church^[50] or boundary wall, indicated by a number of postholes.^[1] It is believed that there was a Saxon settlement in the vicinity as late Saxon potsherds and an eighth-century coin have been found buried under the remains of the priory's west nave. The site was abandoned at some point thereafter; by the time the priory was built the land on which it stood was mostly under cultivation. Part of it was in use as a graveyard by the early 12th century and an early Norman building had been erected in the vicinity, possibly a temporary church.^[1]

The original Norman priory, completed around 1180, was relatively short and narrow. It was constructed in the Romanesque style with twin aisles on either side of the nave and a single tower at the west end, aligned with the main axis of the church. It could be entered from both the north, via an external door, and from the south via the cloister. The existence of the northward door suggests that it was used by a secular congregation, possibly the local nobility and patrons of the priory. A number of graves associated with the first priory have been found in the south aisle's floor and against the north wall.^[1]

It was rebuilt around 1200 on a much larger scale with the Romanesque church being demolished down to its first course of ashlar. The construction of the new church continued through much of the 13th century. The enlarged priory had twin towers at the west end flanking a large double doorway above which was a central rose window; water was provided via a piped water supply using lead pipes leading from the cloister, under the church and out to buildings or standpipes to the north or west of the priory.^[1] The main body of the church comprised a nave with two aisles, transepts and a choir. The aisles were laid with geometric coloured tiles adjoining the sandstone columns of the nave. The north aisle was divided into alcoves or private chapels where a number of people – probably local nobles and gentry – were buried. An unusual feature of the church was a well, sunk into the nave, possibly built in an effort to safeguard the priory's water supplies.^[34]

The effects of the fire that destroyed the priory in 1289 can still be seen in the scorched paving between the surviving pillars of the church. It was originally thought that the church had been completely rebuilt, but excavations in the 1980s have shown that in fact a substantial amount of the less damaged west end was largely reused. This resulted in a distinct inconsistency between the two ends of the priory, which were constructed in different architectural styles. The rebuilding was a major task that took several generations and was probably not completed until the end of the fourteenth century.^[34] It is unclear exactly how much of the second priory survived the fire.^[39] Where the priory was rebuilt, its builders evidently sought to reuse as much as possible; the core of the surviving eastern gable wall is full of fragments from the destroyed second priory.^[38]

Priory Gardens and Monks' Pond

The land immediately south of the priory was used by the Chaloners for many years as the site of formal gardens that were originally attached to the Old Gisborough Hall. In the early 18th century they planted an oval-shaped double avenue of trees, known as the Monks' Walk, where stonework recovered from mid-19th century excavations was later deposited. In between the trees was a manicured lawn that was later often used to hold musical and theatrical productions.^[33] The Monks' Walk fell into disuse and became overgrown but is currently under restoration by the Gisborough Priory Project.^[51]

In the late 19th century, Margaret Chaloner, the wife of the first Lord Gisborough, began laying out a new series of formal gardens. These were of a typical late Victorian and Edwardian design with elaborate bedding schemes and gravelled paths.^[52] The gardens included a rose garden and a sunken Italian garden that had an ornamental pool at its centre. They were open to the public for a small fee and could be entered through a gateway on Bow Street.^[53]

Further east, off the Whitby Road, is the Monks' Pond, which – as the name suggests – was used by the canons as a fish pond. It presents a dramatic vista in which the priory arch is reflected and has often been photographed and painted. In 1908, the pond was the scene of an elaborate water tableau organised by Lady Gisborough to raise funds for the restoration of St Nicholas' Church.^[53] It was long home to a number of exceptionally large fish, but a pollution incident in 2000 apparently caused by a sewage leak led to the death of more than 5,000 fish in the pond.^[54]

Other properties owned by Gisborough Priory

In addition to the main building in Guisborough, the priory was also responsible for the leper hospital of St. Leonard's at Hutton Lowcross, just to the west of Guisborough. The hospital was probably founded in the 12th century and became a dependency of the priory in 1275. It was last documented in 1339. Its fate is unclear but it seems likely that it survived until the Dissolution in 1540.^[55]

The priory may also have owned a cell at Scarth Wood at Whorlton. A grant issued by Stephen de Meynell during the reign of Henry I records the donation of the hamlet of Scarth to enable the priory to establish a cell there, for habitation by a single monk or canon. It is unclear whether the cell was ever actually built, as Scarth is not mentioned in the priory's deeds or in Henry VIII's commissioners' valuation of the priory's property. However, some fragmentary building remains at Scarth are recorded as existing at the site in the mid-18th century. They were cleared away by the start of the 19th century so there is now no trace left of whatever might once have stood there or what it might have been used for.^[56]

Excavations

Gisborough Priory has been excavated on a number of occasions. In 1865–1867 Captain Thomas Chaloner and William Downing Bruce carried out the first major excavation by cutting a trench across the site. A number of features were discovered, including a stone coffin containing the skeleton of a tall man thought to be that of Robert de Brus, the remnants of a monumental shrine and painted roof bosses. Evidence of the 1289 fire was also discovered in the form of pieces of fused metal – an amalgam of lead, silver and iron that had melted together and penetrated through the floor of the building in the heat of the fire.^[24] The Office of Works carried out some archaeological works in 1932 in connection with consolidating the walls and grounds so that they could be opened to the public. Further work was carried out by Roy Gilyard Beer between 1947–54 for the Ministry of Works, which exposed more of the site and cleared away material from the 19th century.^[57]

In 1985–86 Cleveland County Archaeology Section carried out a major excavation of the west end of the nave to consolidate an area of subsidence.^[57] The subsidence turned out to be caused by a previously unrecorded burial vault. The excavators uncovered a considerable amount of new information about the priory's history. They found more evidence of the fire which had destroyed the building in 1289 including scorched masonry, a shattered bell and broken grave-slabs.^[58] The remains of 47 individuals – 21 men, 17 women, 6 children and three others of undetermined gender – were discovered, some of which had been buried with grave goods including a gold finger ring, jet crosses and two chalices and pattens buried with two priests.^[59] The skeletons were later cremated and the ashes were scattered in the centre of the Monks' Walk in the Priory Gardens.^[60] A geophysical survey was also carried out to the west and east of the west range, indicating the existence of the buried remains of other monastic buildings which have yet to be excavated.^[1]

Priors of Gisborough Priory

Between its establishment and its dissolution, 24 priors were recorded holding office at Gisborough Priory.^[61] Their names and dates of taking office, where known, were as follows:

• William de Brus (1119–45?)
• Cuthbert (1146–54)
• Ralph (1174?–80)
• Roald (1199-?)
• Lawrence (1211–12)
• Michael (1218–34)
• John (1239–51, 1257)
• Simon (date uncertain)
• Ralph de Irton (1262)
• Adam de Newland (1280)
• William de Middleburgh (1281)
• Robert de Wilton (1320–1)
• John de Darlington (1346)
• John de Horeworth or Hurworth (1364–93)
• Walter de Thorp (1393)
• John de Helmesley (1408)
• John Thweng (1425)
• Richard Ayreton (1437)
• Richard de Hoton (1452)
• Thomas Darlington (1455)
• John Moreby (1475)
• John Whitby (1491–1505)
• John Moreby (1505)
• William Spires (1511)
• James Cockerill (1519–1534?)
• Robert Pursglove (1537, 1539)

Notes

References

External links

• Visitor information (English Heritage)
• Gisborough Priory PDF: English Heritage teachers' guide
• Gisborough Priory Project
• Detailed historical record for Gisborough Priory