NHER 359 (Monument record) - Site of St Leonard's Priory, Norwich

S4St Leonard's Priory founded around 1094. Demolished 1538. Precinct.

1904. Site excavated.
Walter Rye bought the site of the Priory and made some little excavation on it. These uncovered the west side of the gatehouse and what are described as the remains of "the priory church of which, however, there is little left" (S2) possible S1 though original record is unclear). Copy of a plan of the 1826, showing the site, amended by Rye in 1901 in NRO .

1977. Survey of site.
Demolition of No 85 (erected around 1831) and the clearance of undergrowth on the site provided an opportunity to check the site plan of 1820/1904, and to determine the present state of preservation of the remains. The house of 1831 is believed to have been built on the site of the prior graveyard. Unfortunately the ground has been levelled to natural in 1831, and no evidence now survives for any feature cutting the natural.

The south part of the site had also been considerably levelled at some time (to within 1m of natural). Some remains did survive there in 1904 (since destroyed) and traces were found in clearance (possibly of a cellar or cess pit). A resistivity survey was carried out by the University of Bradford to try and determine the likelihood of further remains surviving in this area. Results were not conclusive due to the possibility of geological disturbance by a possible wall (boundary?) was located towards the southern edge of the site.

The areas of surviving masonry are now largely confined to two mounds on the east and west edges of the site. These stand up to 2m above the surviving ground level. The remains on the east mound are the best preserved and consist of the east end of a building and the west wall of the gatehouse.

There is no evidence for the reconstruction of the remains as a cruciform church with refectory to the south, as suggested in 1826. The documentary evidence suggests more of a domestic layout (on the lines of a grange). Although a careful watch was kept during redevelopment no medieval pottery was found anywhere on site.

1999.
T Pestell (NCM) notes in lecture to RAI Nov 1999 that the official reason for the founding of the priory was as temporary accommodation for the monks while the cathedral was being built. However it is more probably a symbolic way of placing the adjacent St Michaels Chapel under Norman control.
E. Rose (NLA), 10th November 1999.

In (S3) Norwich Cathedral states the Paston Letters show the priory had become a place of pilgrimage by the 15th century and had new windows bequeathed in the 1440s-1490s. It also had an early library; an inventory of 1422 refers to books in common in an upper chapel next to the dormitory. (pp 253, 337).

This was also the site of Mount Surrey, the earl's mansion where he quartered his arms in stained glass with those of Henry VIII and so led to his execution. It was occupied by Kett's rebels. In 1456 a hermit was allowed to live "at the cell of St Leonard on Mousehold". As this site was not a cell, does I mean here of does it refer to a building elsewhere on Mousehold?

See details in file and file NCM.

The Helmingham Breviary, aquired by Norwich Castle Museum in 1993 (NWHCM: 1993.196), is thought to have been donated to St Leonard's Priory by Robert de Lakenham in about AD1420. See article (S4), website (S5) and unpublished documents (S6) and (S7).
A. Beckham (HES), 23 March 2020.