Authors: Ludlow, N. D.; Ramsey, R. S. F.; Schlee, D. E.

Source: Medieval Archaeology, 2002 , pp. 41-80(40)

Publisher: Maney Publishing

Abstract:

Recording, geophysical survey and a watching brief undertaken between 1996 and 1999 at Pill Priory, a Tironian house founded near Milford Haven in the late 12th century, have together considerably increased our knowledge of what was hitherto a little-understood site. With its mother-house, St Dogmaels Abbey, and sister house on Caldey Island, Pill belongs to the best preserved group of the order's British houses. It appears to have been of moderate size and to have exhibited a fully developed conventual plan based around a cruciform church, of which only the chancel arch and part of the south transept now survive. The north wall of the north transept was revealed during sewage-pipe excavation in 1996?7, and the nave and chancel wall-lines were observed as geophysical anomalies in July 1999 as was a detached building, possibly an infirmary. The east and south ranges of the conventual buildings were selectively adapted as domestic accommodation during the 16th?19th centuries but elements of the medieval fabric still survive. A sewage pipe trench cut through the former monastic cemetery, revealing 31 inhumations. All of these apparently relate to the priory, but their identities are unknown ? the community itself rarely numbered above five members. Well-preserved skeletal remains in varying degrees of completeness were present, but all had undergone later disturbance; only one exhibited any evidence for a coffin. The high incidence if grave superimposition suggests that space within the cemetery was at a premium, while their arrangement may indicate the approximate extent of the formal monastic precinct.

Document Type: Research Article

Publication date: 2002-01-01

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