Guildford Blackfriars (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Guildford.
In the historic county of Surrey.
Modern Authority of Surrey.
1974 county of Surrey.
Medieval County of Surrey.

OS Map Grid Reference: SU99464958
Latitude 51.23609° Longitude -0.57654°

Guildford Blackfriars has been described as a certain Palace.

There are no visible remains.

Description

A Dominican Friary established in C13 and dissolved in 1538. Henry VIII constructed a hunting lodge within its precincts. Following the dissolution the King converted the friary into a dwelling to use as an occasional royal resort. Excavations in 1973-1978 revealed that the site was subsequently used as a garden. The site was cleared and a house was constructed circa 1630 by Inigo Jones. This was later converted into barracks in 1794 and demolished in 1818. Much of the site is now occupied by Friary Brewery. The excavations had produced quantities of C14 and C15 pottery and recognised the extent of the friary complex. The claustral complex lay to the North of the church. The church was a simple plan of chancel, and nave with South aisle. The East range contained the chapter house and sacristy, the North range the kitchen. The West range, of which only the East wall and some flooring remained, probably contained the guest house and dormitory. (PastScape)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 250331.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 1658.

Books
- Thurley, Simon, 1993, The Royal Palaces of Tudor England (Yale University Press) p. 50, 56-7, 79
  Poulton, Rob, Woods, Humphrey et al, 1984, Excavations on the site of the Dominican Friary at Guildford in 1974 and 1978 (Research volumes of the Surrey Archaeological Society No. 9)
  Colvin, H.M., Ransome, D.R. and Summerson, John, 1982, The history of the King's Works, Vol. 4: 1485-1660 (part 2) (London) p. 123-4
  Clinch and Montgomerie, 1911, Malden, H.E. (ed), VCH Surrey Vol. 3 p. 554 online transcription
  Malden, H.E., 1905, 'Friaries: Dominican Friars of Guildford' VCH Surrey Vol. 2 p. 114-6 online transcription
Periodical Articles
- Crocker, Alan, 2003, 'An analysis of accounts for repairs to buildings in the royal park of Guildford in 1514 ' Surrey Archaeological Collections Vol. 90 p. 211-232 online copy
  1975, 'Medieval Britain in 1974' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 19 p. 236 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Camden, Wm, 1607, Britannia hypertext critical edition by Dana F. Sutton (2004)
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Surrey County Council, 2006, Extensive Urban Survey - Surrey (English Heritage) Download copy

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

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