Blackfriars Church And Part Of East Range Of Friary

Blackfriars Church and Part of East Range of Friary

This is a substantial complex of medieval friary buildings in Gloucester, comprising the church and adjoining east claustral range of the Dominican Blackfriars, founded in 1239 by Sir Stephen de Hermshall. Construction was substantially funded and supplied with materials by King Henry III. The church was consecrated in 1284, with major alterations carried out in the late 14th century.

Following the dissolution of the friary, the church was substantially reduced in size and remodelled for domestic use as a house. The claustral buildings were converted into a cloth manufactory for Sir Thomas Bell, a merchant cloth maker and draper. Further alterations were made throughout the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries for multiple domestic and commercial purposes. From around 1960, the building was designated an Ancient Monument under the care of the Ministry of Works and its successor government departments. English Heritage has managed conservation and public display of the building since 1964.

The friary buildings are constructed of stone rubble with dressed stone features. Additional ashlar structures were added during the 16th-century conversion to domestic use. Roofs were relaid around 1970 in plain tile, with stone slate verges on the former church roof.

Originally the church was cruciform in plan, comprising a long chancel, crossing with north and south transepts, and an aisled nave. During 16th-century conversion to a house, the former chancel and nave were truncated and closed with gable-end walls incorporating central projecting chimney-stacks. The north nave aisle was completely demolished, the south aisle partially demolished, and the nave arcades were infilled and partly refaced. A large canted bay window was added at the west end of the north wall. The former chancel was remodelled with new windows to serve as a great hall, while floors and partitions were inserted into the transepts and nave to create chambers. The south transept was subsequently demolished. In the mid-20th century, following removal of post-medieval internal features, the south side of the former crossing was closed with a glazed steel frame screen around 1970. The north end of the east claustral range abuts the south wall of the chancel on the east side of the former south transept. The southern end of the east range, including the former chapter house, has been demolished.

The north side of the church was remodelled in 1540–45 as the principal front of the house and further altered in the late 18th century when the building was divided into two dwellings. It now displays two storeys and an attic with a central projecting wing formed from the former north transept. To the left of this wing are two large four-light mullioned windows inserted to light the great hall (the former chancel). The gable-end of the central wing has corner buttresses set back from canted angles. The infill within the former 14th-century large gable-end window is pierced with late 18th-century sashes—three to each of the former two floors and one lighting the former attic. All are of similar size, framed in mahogany with glazing bars in a 3 by 4 pane pattern and trefoiled heads to each pane; these window openings are now blocked internally. A reset 14th-century three-light window with restored tracery appears in the north wall of the wing.

Since 1960, all post-medieval floors and partitions have been removed to expose the proportions of the church and reveal surviving medieval features. These include portions of the moulded 14th-century crossing piers, 14th-century flying arches in the west wall of the north transept, and an arch inserted in the east bay of the north arcade of the nave to support the north-west pier of the crossing when the former central tower was rebuilt. Remains of 13th-century piers in the nave are largely concealed by 16th-century infill. The chancel contains evidence of 13th-century arcading that originally framed lancet windows above a continuous string course on the north wall and part of the south wall. The 16th-century walls blocking the truncated ends of the former nave and chancel retain moulded chimney pieces at the former ground and first-floor levels, with mullioned windows on either side of each floor featuring arched heads to the lights.

Above the nave and chancel is a remarkable surviving example of an open timber roof with 13th-century close-set scissor trusses. The north end of the east range contains doors and windows of various dates and 13th-century timber scissor trusses in its open roof.

The building has been a Scheduled Ancient Monument in guardianship since 1960.