Medieval Religious Houses in Newcastle
As we’ve taken a look at the history of Newcastle’s Medieval churches, we’re now going to take a look at the history of Newcastle’s religious houses. From the Middle Ages until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s there were numerous religious houses. These included five friaries and a nunnery as well as several charitable hospitals and chantries.
Adam of Alnwyk, in the distinctive habit of the Blackfriars
Let’s begin with the Blackfriars. Established in the UK in 1221 the Dominican order (or Blackfriars) came to Newcastle in 1239. Lands and funds to build the friary were donated by three anonymous sisters and Sir Peter Scott, who served as mayor of Newcastle between 1245 and 1251. The order dressed in white tunics and black cloaks, and one story suggests that it was the Dominican’s uniform that gave Newcastle United the idea to play in black and white. The building of the Town Walls (begun in 1265) cut the friars off from their garden, and in 1280 they were given permission to have a gate built into the wall. In 1334 as part of the terms of the Treaty of Newcastle, Edward Balliol, the King of Scotland, and son of John Balliol, ceded eight counties in Lowland Scotland to Edward III. 1334 also saw history being repeated. As you may know in 1292 John Balliol paid homage to Edward I in the Great Hall of the Castle, on the 19th of June 1334, in a case of history repeating itself, Edward Balliol paid homage to Edward III at Blackfriars. The friary was closed in 1539 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries and sold to the Corporation (the town council of the day) and wealthy merchants. Whilst some of the site was demolished, the surviving parts were leased out to the town’s guilds, with the Guild of Tailors meeting at the site until 1974. Blackfriars fell into a state of disrepair during the 1800s and 1900s, with Newcastle City Council taking over the site in the early 1950s. It was restored between 1973 and 1981, and the refectory, or dining room, of the friary is now home to the Blackfriars restaurant. As the site dates back to 1239, it is very likely that the restaurant is in the oldest purpose-built dining room in the UK.
Standing on the site of the Holy Jesus Hospital, the Augustinian friary or Austinfriars, was founded in around 1291 by William Ros, 1st Baron Ros. As the friary stood on the one of the main roads north, it was frequently used by travellers, and was traditionally used by English royalty when in Newcastle. On the 24th of July 1503, Margaret Tudor, the daughter of Henry VII and older sister of Henry VIII, stopped in Newcastle on her way to Scotland to marry James IV. She spent two days in the town, with both days seeing music, dancing, sports, and religious processions. On the 26th of July Margaret and her entourage moved on to Morpeth, Margaret reached Scotland on the 1st of August with her marriage to James IV taking place on the 8th at Holyrood Palace. Like the Blackfriars, the Austinfriars were dissolved in 1539. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the site was used by the Council of the North when not meeting in their usual base of York. Although Elizabeth I decreed that the Council would sit at Newcastle for twenty days a year the site was barely used, and by 1596 was described as being, ‘much deprived.’ After passing into private ownership for several decades the Holy Jesus Hospital was opened in the early 1680s to house retired Freemen, their widows, and unmarried children. The site continued to act as an alms house until 1937 when it joined with the Hospital of St Mary Magdalene (who we’ll see more of later in this blog) and moved out to Spital Tongues.
Nun’s Lane, once the entrance to St Bartholomew’s Nunnery
The Franciscans or Greyfriars could be found on Pilgrim Street. This friary was founded in 1237 and dissolved in 1539. After the Dissolution, the land the friary had stood on was sold to the merchant Robert Anderson. Anderson had the mansion the New Place, later Anderson Place, built on the site. In 1646 Charles I stayed in Anderson Place during his time as a prisoner in Newcastle. The house was eventually purchased by Richard Grainger and demolished in 1835 to make way for Grainger Town. Opposite the Greyfriars was a Benedictine Nunnery, which was founded according to some sources before 1086, making it the oldest of Newcastle’s religious houses. The Nunnery was dissolved in 1540 and gives Nun Street and Nuns Moor their names. The Carmelites or Whitefriars were founded sometime before 1262 with their friary originally located at Pandon towards the Sallyport Tower. After the dissolution of the Friars of the Sack in 1307, the Whitefriars moved to Forth Street. It was dissolved sometime in the late 1530s, with the remains being demolished in the 1960s. Finally the Trinitarian friary was founded in 1360 by William Wakefield. This friary could be found in Pandon on the site of the original Carmelite friary. It was dissolved in 1539.
As well as five friaries and a nunnery there were also twelve charitable hospitals and several chantries (a chapel set up to say prayers for the souls of the dead). The hospitals included the Maison Dieu (or Hospital of St Katherine, which we came across in our blog post on Newcastle Cathedral) and the Hospital of St Mary the Virgin at Westgate, which cared for the poor and provided accommodation for impoverished clergy and travellers. There was also the Hospital of St Mary Magdalene, a leper hospital or lazar house located at Barras Bridge on the site of the Civic Centre. This hospital gave the Spital Tongues area its name, a strip of hospital land, or a ‘spital tongue’ was given to the hospital’s patients to help them become self-sufficient.
Although little remains of Newcastle’s religious houses, we can see that they had a rich and varied history.