Greyfriars, Leicester

, the Leicester Austin Friars, the Whitefriars (not actually present in Leicester), and a group of lay mourners. The church depicted is the now demolished St Sepulchre outside the southern wall of old Leicester (now Leicester Royal Infirmary). Mendicant friars of the Order of Friars Minor, also known as Franciscans, and as the "grey friars" due to the colour of their religious habit, first arrived in Britain in 1224, two years before St Francis died. Nine friars came over from France to Canterbury, and rapidly attracted new members to the order. By the spring of 1225 they also had houses in London and Oxford (initially just borrowed rooms befitting an order vowed to poverty and simplicity). Expansion to Cambridge, Northampton and Norwich followed, continuing the pattern of modest premises in the midst of populous towns. Friars arrived at Leicester as part of this first wave of expansion, some time before 1230, Simon de Montfort, 6th Earl of Leicester, has traditionally been credited with playing a part in this, having become Earl in 1231. Stow suggested Gilbert and Ellen Luenor were the actual founders, whilst antiquarian Francis Peck has suggested that John Pickering was either the founder or a very early benefactor of the friary. The excavations of 2013 opened a stone coffin, buried in front of the high altar of the church. Preliminary analysis suggests the occupant was a woman, and almost certainly a major benefactor, although her identity is as yet unknown. It is not clear if the friary was dedicated to a particular saint. De Montfort University's Digital Building Heritage Project points out it was "most commonly referred to simply as Greyfriars Church, Leicester". but suggests a possibility it may have been dedicated to St. Mary Magdalene; However, the specific site of the church was only confirmed by the archaeological dig of 2012, which also gave some clues to the layout of the associated monastic buildings. The church occupied an area in the north-east of the plot, with the cloisters and other friary buildings extending to the south. The choir of the friary church was a buttressed building, wide. This was completed around 1255. William of Nottingham was buried in its cemetery. Permission was given to expand the friars’ dwelling place in 1349. This was separate from the Greyfriars site, outside the town wall on Millstone Lane. After the dissolution it was used as a barn, and ended up as the 18th century meeting hall of Leicester Methodists. The main business of the sessions was the suppression of Lollardy, the punishment for which was to be confiscation of property, or even burning at the stake, giving rise to the name. Ten years later, Henry VII paid £50 and £10-1s for a tomb 'of many-coloured marble' to be built. An account arose that when the tomb was destroyed, Richard's bones were thrown into the River Soar by the nearby Bow Bridge. In 1920, C.J Billson regarded this as a mere legend and highly improbable, a view endorsed by David Baldwin in 1986. By the end of the 20th century, aided by a plaque near the Bow Bridge, the notion was sufficiently entrenched as to be reported as fact in authoritative history books. However, the Archaeology service of the University of Leicester, along with the Richard III Society and Leicester City Council, initiated an archaeological study resulting in three trenches being dug across the parking area behind the buildings on Greyfriars. These excavations revealed walls of the cloisters and the Church, enabling a possible layout for the monastic buildings to be drawn. Also found was the complete skeleton of a male showing severe scoliosis and major head wounds. On 4 February 2013 the University of Leicester confirmed that the skeleton was that of Richard III, based on numerous tests. The mtDNA was compared with two known descendants of Richard III's older sister, Anne of York, and on 4 February 2013 it was confirmed that the mtDNA matched, that the radiocarbon agreed, and that the characteristics of the bones and the nature of the head wounds were all entirely consistent with this being the remains of Richard III. ==Post-dissolution development==

After the dissolution, the Church and monastic buildings were acquired by two property speculators from Lincolnshire: John Bellowe and John Broxholme. They demolished the buildings in 1538, selling off the stones and building materials. Some of the stones and timber were used to repair St Martin's Church (now Leicester Cathedral). The 2012 excavation trenches revealed the original wall trenches, which were filled with mortar from the removal of the original stones. Some tracery and other carved stones were found, but most had been efficiently recycled elsewhere. The church foundations, floor levels, and demolition layer were found under some of garden soil, itself capped by a further of mill waste used to create a base for the car park of recent years. Herrick's mansion Sir Robert Catlyn, Chief Justice to Elizabeth I, acquired the site from Bellowe and Broxholme, The Herrick family, who also owned the country estate of Beaumanor, near Loughborough, sold the mansion in 1711 to Thomas Noble, Georgian and Victorian development Thomas Noble's son, also Thomas, put a road across the Greyfriars site in 1740. It spanned from near St Martin's Church (now Leicester Cathedral) to Friar Lane. In 1752 the mansion house and grounds were sold to Richard Garle, who sold it in 1776 to Thomas Pares, a Leicester banker. Pares enlarged the mansion and built a banking house at the extreme east end of the site, on the corner of St Martin's and Hotel Street. School building In 1863, Mrs Parsons was persuaded to sell a plot of land to the trustees of Alderman Newton's Boys School, enabling a move from their school in Holy Bones. The character of the area was described at that point as "very open and salubrious and in the neighbourhood of several large gardens." The school was built in 1864, and extended in both 1887 and 1897, fronting on to St Martins. In 1920, Alderman Newton's moved to the former Wyggeston School buildings at the other end of Peacock Lane (now the St Martin's cathedral centre). The old school buildings became the Girls School and then the preparatory school. When the Alderman Newton's School moved to Glenfield Road in the 1970s, the buildings became Leicester Grammar School, and the St Martins buildings were used by the sixth formers. When Leicester Grammar School itself moved to Great Glen, they were renamed 'St Martin's Place', and used as offices. In the 2012 archaeological dig, trench 3 was located in the former playground of Alderman Newton's School. In late 2012 it was acquired by Leicester City Council, who announced in February 2013 that it was to become a Richard III museum. Corporation and County Council The two parts of the mansion and the remainder of its gardens were bought by the Leicester Corporation in 1866. They originally intended it to be the site of a new Town Hall but, in 1872, they decided instead to use a site at what is now Town Hall Square. At the mansion site, they demolished the house, cleared the ground, and created a new road linking St Martins and Friar Lane, called "Grey Friars". This rapidly acquired several fine commercial Victorian buildings. In 1873, at the corner of St Martin's facing Pares Bank, the Leicester Savings Bank was built. In 1880, Barradale's architects office, 5 Grey Friars was built. Designed by Isaac Barradale for his own use, it is an early example of Domestic Revival style. Ernest Gimson was articled to Barradale, and worked in these offices between 1881 and 1885. One of the few 20th-century buildings on the site was built in 1936, over the place where the Herrick Mansion had stood, on what was by then the corner of Grey Friars and Friar Lane. It served as the county offices for Leicestershire County Council until the completion of County Hall in 1965. It has since become one of several buildings in the area for the administration of social services. The buildings fronting onto Grey Friars, Friar Lane, New Street, and St Martins surround an area that for over a century has been car parks, back yards, and a school yard, and were gardens for 300 years before that. The identification of the exact site of the church and monastic buildings through the archaeological dig of 2012 has shown that much of the Greyfriars Church foundations, including the grave of Richard III, are within that area and lay undisturbed for the whole of that time. ==Archaeological excavations==

As well as discovering the remains of Richard III, the Archaeological dig of August 2012 tentatively identified various elements of the medieval friary. This included the north and south walls of the Friary Church chancel, a cloister area, a chapter house with stone benches, and some tentative clues as to the building materials, stone choir pews, floor tiles and a window moulding. Three further graves, including a stone coffin, were also identified, but left undisturbed. In July 2013 the University of Leicester Archaeological Service headed up a month-long dig, with a wider remit to investigate further the archaeology of the Greyfriars. The aim was to provide as much information as possible for the visitor centre. The modern wall dividing the social services car park and school playground was demolished, allowing a wide area excavation, contrasting with the narrow trenches of 2012. In-situ floor tiles were found, along with other pottery, and small finds. A mystery buttressed building to the south of the Chancel was also found, which may pre-date the Church. The three grave sites, all within the Chancel, were also investigated, including a massive stone coffin in front of the high altar, which was found to have an intact lead coffin inside. Initial investigations suggest the occupant was a woman, and therefore probably a wealthy benefactor. ==Richard III Visitor Centre==

With the confirmation in February 2013 that Richard III's burial place had been found, Leicester City Council announced plans to convert the former Alderman Newton's school buildings into a Richard III Visitor Centre called 'Richard III: Dynasty, Death and Discovery', with a covered area over the original grave site, and an upstairs viewing platform to show reconstructions of the Greyfriars site and other elements of medieval Leicester. A temporary exhibition in the Leicester Guildhall showed a range of the site artefacts until the permanent museum opened in July 2014. ==Reburial==

In July 2013 Leicester Cathedral announced plans for the re-burial in the nearby Cathedral in May 2014, although a request to the High Court for a judicial review was made by people wishing the reburial to be in York. In August 2013 a judge granted permission for a judicial review but a ruling in May 2014 decreed that there are "no public law grounds for the Court interfering with the decisions in question". In the light of this judgement, plans were announced for a re-interment in Leicester Cathedral in the spring of 2015, and which accordingly took place on 26 March in the presence of the Countess of Wessex, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, and the Archbishop of Canterbury. ==Notes==