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Grey Friars' Church

Preston, City of Preston, Lancashire, England

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  • Get directions Marsh Lane
    Preston, City of Preston, Lancashire PR1 2YF England
    Coordinates: 53.76015, -2.70846
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Founded around the early 1200s by Franciscan monks, known as Grey Friars after the colour of their robes and dedicated to St Clare. The first documented evidence of the friary existing was in 1260 when King Henry III allowed the friars to cut timber in the royal Forest of Fulwood. The Franciscan friary was one of the only three friaries to exist in Lancashire, the others were an Augustinian friary in Warrington and an Dominican friary in Lancaster.

In 1539 Henry VIII ordered the friary dissolved and the buildings to be sold off and partly demolished.

The site of the friary was south of the present day Marsh Lane (formerly known as Friar's Lane), between Ladywell street and Pitt street.

The exact location was unknown because the area underwent a lot of re-development including private housing and a 'house of correction' 1680-1789 and heavy industrial use, a foundry was built, the Lancaster canal went through the site and then filled in, railway lines and sidings, where human bones and stonework fragments were found and thought to be from the friary.

In 1991, a major bypass road was being built and an archaeological dig to locate the friary site undertaken but found no structures, just four shards of medieval floor tile known to be associated with a high status monastic building.

In 2007 when a hotel was being built, the site was excavated and the site of the friary cemetery was located and 30 graves were found, 22 different skeletons were identified with 12 being almost complete. Archaeologists think there was an infirmary or hospice on site.

There is no physical evidence of the cemetery remaining.





Founded around the early 1200s by Franciscan monks, known as Grey Friars after the colour of their robes and dedicated to St Clare. The first documented evidence of the friary existing was in 1260 when King Henry III allowed the friars to cut timber in the royal Forest of Fulwood. The Franciscan friary was one of the only three friaries to exist in Lancashire, the others were an Augustinian friary in Warrington and an Dominican friary in Lancaster.

In 1539 Henry VIII ordered the friary dissolved and the buildings to be sold off and partly demolished.

The site of the friary was south of the present day Marsh Lane (formerly known as Friar's Lane), between Ladywell street and Pitt street.

The exact location was unknown because the area underwent a lot of re-development including private housing and a 'house of correction' 1680-1789 and heavy industrial use, a foundry was built, the Lancaster canal went through the site and then filled in, railway lines and sidings, where human bones and stonework fragments were found and thought to be from the friary.

In 1991, a major bypass road was being built and an archaeological dig to locate the friary site undertaken but found no structures, just four shards of medieval floor tile known to be associated with a high status monastic building.

In 2007 when a hotel was being built, the site was excavated and the site of the friary cemetery was located and 30 graves were found, 22 different skeletons were identified with 12 being almost complete. Archaeologists think there was an infirmary or hospice on site.

There is no physical evidence of the cemetery remaining.





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  • Added: 19 Oct 2012
  • Find a Grave Cemetery ID: 2469879