1999:125 - COLERAINE: St Mary's Dominican Priory, Hanover Place, Derry

Excavations at the site of the priory took place over five months between November 1998 and May 1999, before a proposed major retail development.

Before the arrival of archaeologists on site, the mid-19th-century buildings fronting onto Hanover Place and Bridge Street had been demolished and the concrete slab, which had originally covered the workyard area for Stuart's garage and had extended across the entire southern half of the site, had been broken up. The slab and associated overburden were removed under archaeological supervision. Before the removal of these there were no visible remains of the priory, associated buildings or graveyard.

Extensive excavation across the site uncovered the footprint of the medieval Dominican priory and an associated burial-ground. The intensity of the post-medieval activity had effectively razed all medieval deposits to the extent that even the priory walls survived only as subsoil-cut features.

Historical documents record that the priory was founded in the mid-13th century and abandoned at the end of the 16th century during the continuing Dissolution of the Monasteries under Elizabeth I. Thereafter the priory and its land were granted to James Hamilton in 1605, who in turn gave the land to Thomas Phillips later that year. Phillips set about fortifying the monastic buildings and in 1609 claimed that he had almost finished constructing a fort, but by 1610 he had surrendered his lands to the Crown. The priory was converted into storehouses in 1612 and eventually fell into disrepair and was razed to the ground.

The earliest illustrations of the priory are in Carew's map of 1611 and later in Raven's map of 1622. Excavations have shown that the maps give quite a faithful representation of the priory, which was of typical Dominican architecture. As it survived, the priory consisted of a nave, a chancel and two transepts. The church formed the northern side of the cloister; the western side of the cloister ran parallel to Hanover Place and had been destroyed by basements. The maps show the western side of the cloister as being of two storeys. This is highly unusual but was perhaps necessitated by the natural slope of the ground. The eastern side of the cloister was a continuation of the line of the southern transept. Entrance to the priory was through a single doorway along the western side, presumably via a staircase.

The almost complete footprint of the priory had survived and was excavated as a series of subsoil-cut foundation walls and trenches. As all of the walls had been truncated at ground level, no architectural details such as window embrasures or doorways had survived. In its final phase the church had internal measurements of just over 32m east-west by almost 11m north-south. A columned aisle had been added along the north of the church, running east-west, making the north-south interior length ratio 1:3. A stone rood screen divided the chancel in the east from the nave in the west.

A number of burials were excavated in the church, most lying within the nave. A subdivided transept lay to the north of the church, but the southern transept had been removed by the later citadel wall and survived only as a series of infilled foundation trenches.

Two walls projected from the southern face of the southern church wall and were of identical construction. These walls have been identified as part of the cloister range. During the earlier part of the 17th century a citadel was constructed on the site. Its origins are obscure, although it would appear to have been constructed after 1625 and demolished in the 1660s, standing south of the priory cloisters and Phillips's house. Excavations uncovered a substantial, 2m-wide wall constructed from heavily mortared, roughly dressed blocks running along the southern area of the site. This wall ran east-west from Hanover Place, removing all evidence for the southern cloister arcade, and terminated in a north-eastern bastion. The wall was enclosed with a wide ditch that would have had the effect of creating a moated site. This wall has been identified as part of the citadel.

Over two hundred human skeletons were excavated, along with a quantity of disturbed, disarticulated remains. The burials were found both within the nave and chancel and to the east and south-east of the church. Males, females, children and babies were all represented, indicating that the burial-ground was not solely used by the Dominicans.

Excavations in the north-western corner of the site, along the junction of Hanover Place and Bridge Street, uncovered a wooden structure c. 5–6m long, which has been identified as part of a quay or jetty. The oak uprights were very substantial and had been fixed to a long vertical beam by wooden pegs. The timbers were sealed within an organic-smelling, plastic, grey riverine clay. Pottery recovered from this clay butting against the timbers has been dated to the early medieval period. A second line of uprights lay c. 1.5m to the south of the wooden timbers and may have facilitated the mooring of small boats. Small areas of wicker were also uncovered within the riverine clay, suggesting the location of fish traps-historical records inform us that the Dominicans had fishing rights on the Bann. The date of the pottery found in association with the timbers would suggest that the jetty is contemporary with the priory.

To the east of these timbers, upslope along Bridge Street, a linear feature had survived in a narrow strip of ground undisturbed by basements. This feature cut through subsoil and was filled with a friable, grey/brown, soily clay. As excavated, it had a maximum depth of 0.96m and width of 2.4m, although the full width could not be determined as it continued beneath present-day Bridge Street. The fill was free of any datable artefacts, although it can be assumed that it was part of the enclosing precinct ditch associated with the medieval priory.

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