Excavations at the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital, London
Excavations at the Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital, London

Author: Christopher Thomas

Publisher:

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13:

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St Mary Spital, Bishopgate was founded in 1197, and grew to become one of the biggest institutions for the care of the sick in medieval London. This report details all the discoveries made during extensive excavations, from all aspects of the building materials to ceramic, pottery, glass and leather finds through to human and animal bones, and botanical and other remains. However this is an archaeological report with a difference. The editors wanted to make it as reader-friendly as possible, and the result is that all the different strands of evidence have been combined to provide a single chronological account of the priory and hospital, with current research debates covered in thematic sections. These cover topics such as as the hospital buildings, the lives of the inhabitants, and the role of St Mary's within the city of London, as well as the environmental evidence, 126 excavated human skeletons and the reuse of the site after the Dissolution of 1536. An interesting medieval site, examined in an accessible way.

The Medieval Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital and the Bishopsgate Suburb
The Medieval Priory and Hospital of St Mary Spital and the Bishopsgate Suburb

Author: Chiz Harward

Publisher: Mola Monograph

Published: 2020-02-08

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781907586484

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London's Spitalfields Market was the location of one of the city's largest archaeological excavations, carried out by MOLA between 1991 and 2007. This book presents the archaeological and documentary evidence for medieval activity here, on the north-eastern fringe of the historic city, and the site of the Augustinian priory and hospital of St Mary without Bishopsgate, later known as St Mary Spital. Large areas of the medieval precinct have been explored, making this by far the most intensively investigated medieval hospital, and one of the most extensively investigated monastic establishments, in Britain. Founded in 1197, rebuilt on a larger scale and refounded in 1235, the hospital catered primarily for London's sick poor. A pre-existing extramural and extraparochial cemetery became the priory's principal cemetery. As the priory continued to attract patrons and wealth, it expanded its precinct and carried out major building programs. By the 15th century the small hospital had become one of the largest Augustinian priories in southern England. Medical treatment in the 14th century is illustrated by remarkable evidence from the canons' infirmary with its attached pharmacy; a trend towards secularization in the 14th and 15th centuries is shown by the hamlet of timber houses and workshops that grew around the cemetery. An exceptional survival was the charnel crypt of the 14th-century cemetery chapel, which is preserved today under Bishops Square.