Pontefract & District Archaeological
Society
Newsletter
Summer excavation of St. Richards
Dominican Friary Pontefract
Built on the former site of Pontefract General Infirmary (most
of which has now been demolished), St. Richards Dominican
Friary, one of only five in Yorkshire, was established in 1256
and dissolved in 1538.
The site is adjacent the medieval Hermitage and Oratory
(Chapel) which is a Grade 1 listed building of national
significance.
The site was first investigated by our society in the 1960’s
where evidence of foundation walls was seen along with two
medieval burials. Some of the walls were extremely thick and ll
suggesting they may have been a part of the south wall of the
church.
Further excavations occurred in the 1980’s and a geophysical
survey was carried out in the Valley Gardens all of which
suggested further evidence for the Friary.
Our society has been fortunate in having the opportunity to
excavate an area of land adjacent the Bluebell Steps and
Southgate. We will be digging for about 10 weeks until early
October 2011.
We have just completed the first week of our excavations and
things look very promising. We started by removing the top soil
which also contained building rubble and digging down through
what is eighteenth and nineteenth century agricultural soil. This
soil has been improved using household waste consisting of
ash, coal, broken crockery, animal bones and organic
household waste. This has created deep well drained fertile
agricultural soil used most probably for growing liquorice.
The cultivation and harvesting of this root crop has disturbed
the underlying archaeology which has meant that fragments of
human bone and teeth, medieval pottery and pipe bowls and
stems and medieval building materials have risen into this
later agricultural soil.
This does suggest that this part of the Friary may well be the
site of a war grave from the civil war dating to 1648. Other
finds including medieval roofing slabs, window leading and
glass, as well as a stone window moulding suggest that they
are from the medieval friary.
Over the next week we will continue to excavate down to the
underlying archaeological deposits and see what they tell us
about this important Dominican friary.