NHER 8220 (Building record) - Holy Trinity Church and site of Priory of St Mary and Holy Trinity, Ingham

Holy Trinity Church had a former use as the conventual church of a Trinitarian priory. Unusually the church was used jointly by the monastery and parish. The church was rebuilt in 1360 when the priory was founded by this uncommon monastic order. The tall and imposing tower of the church was built in the 15th century. Gravel quarrying has destroyed much of the priory site but the church, part of the cloister wall (now built into the churchyard boundary wall), parts of the old precinct wall rebuilt into post medieval houses and a possible monastic barn (now mostly rebuilt in the post medieval period as The Swan Inn) survive. Several skeletons have also been recovered within the precinct area. Ingham is the only Trinitarian house in Britain with any surviving buildings and the only Trinitarian monastery in East Anglia (the nearest neighbour being Hertford). It is a good example of a small, rural monastic house.
See (S1) and (S2).

February 1954. Stray Find.
Found on priory site:
1 red deer antler tool. See sketch (S3).

1962. In churchyard.
Niedermendig lava quern or millstone found.

1967.
Human skeleton found lying east to west in cloisters.

Farmyard to north of priory site.
A. Rogerson (NAU), found a pile of medieval glazed floor tiles.

1988. The Swan Inn.
J. Denny (North Norfolk District Council) states an archway was uncovered in the original east wall of the inn which he believes to be a monastic barn.
E. Rose (NAU), 11 October 1988.

November 1988.
Two skeletons were dug up 'outside' The Swan Inn. Owner records a gallows stood in the car park of the inn. W. Milligan (NCM) adds a full skeleton was seen under a 'mortar and flint slab'.
See (S4).
E. Rose (NAU), 11 November 1988.

1991. Excavation and survey of church. North of surviving cloister wall.
All layers had been quarried away for gravel in the 19th century.
See (S2).
E. Rose (NLA), 1991.

Church listed Grade I, Swan Inn and Town House II.

1998. Watching brief. Water pipe along Mill Road.
No features seen or finds. This indicates the western boundary of the church has not moved eastwards although it may have edged closer to the road when re-built in the post medieval period.
See addenda to (S1).
T. Pestell (NCM), 3 September 1998.

March 2000. Salvage excavation.
Inhumation and wall in yard of Swan Public House.
See (S5).

2000.
Continued survey of the churchyard by UEA Landscape Archaeology students is close to completing an accurate plan of all funerary monuments, including full recording of epitaphs. A start has been made on recording the structurally-important church north wall.
Information from (S10).
D. Holburn (HES), 14 Novemeber 2011.

2002.
Landscape Archaeology students from UEA completed a survey of funerary monuments within the churchyard. All inscriptions have been transcribed and most check. An elevation drawing of the nave/claustral church North wall was also started.
See (S9).
D. Holburn (HES), 14 October 2011.

April 2004. Norfolk NMP.
Cropmarks relating to the adjacent manor or possibly the priory precinct boundary have been mapped to the east of the priory site (see NHER 8258).
See (S6).
J. Albone (NMP), 27 April 2004.

August 2004. Norfolk NMP.
Parchmarks of the former south transept/Lady Chapel of the church are visible on 1954 aerial photographs (S7).
See (S6).
J. Albone (NMP), August 25 2004.

For the tomb effigy of Sir Roger de Bois, see (S8).
D. Gurney (NLA), 13 October 2008.

May 2012. Interpretation.
A fragment from a monumental brass recovered during metal-detecting in a field to the northeast of the church (NHER 8222) was identified as part of the canopy of a brass commemorating Sir Miles Stapleton and his two wives (1466). A surviving piece of this brass was re-set in the original slab in Ingham Church in 1956 (S11).
H. Hamilton (HES), 24 October 2012.