Leominster Priory foundations and burial discoveries

What this record tells us

Benedictine Priory founded circa 1123 as a dependency of Reading. Dissolved 1539. Priory remains include the nave (now the parish church, see SO45NE71) the infirmary or the Prior's lodging. The claustral buildings were arranged to the North of the church. Excavations in 1853 and 1932 showed that the priory church in its final phase had an apsidal presbytery, and North and South transepts with circular chapels to the East.

Additional research and clarification, 26 September 2026 Removal of soil for a railway embankment in 1853 exposed foundations of the lost eastern church, including its transept and presbytery area. Further clearance took place in 1932. In 1950 skeletons identified at the time as female were found near the high altar; human bones were also observed in flowerbeds east of the hospital buildings in the 1970s.

These are separate episodes, not one excavated cemetery. The early descriptions lack the specialist recording needed to establish the sex, age and date of all the burials. The foundations are important evidence for the monastic plan, whereas the bones cannot automatically be assigned to the pre-Conquest nunnery. Their different evidential strengths should be retained.

How this record is evidenced

Map location

Source and further reading