The University of Leicester has confirmed that the church of the Franciscan Friary has been found.  The initial two trenches revealed tiled passageway floors, which are at right angles from each other.  This led the archaeologists to believe that these are remains of the cloister of the friary.  A cloister is a rectangular open space, which is surrounded by covered walkways, so that the monks would remain dry whilst walking around it.  One of the sides of the cloister would often be alongside a church.

On the third side of the cloister remains of a large, one and half metres thick wall were found, which the archaeologists thought could be the south wall of the church itself.  The third trench established that this wall continues and also found remains of a second wall approx. 7.5 metres to the north.   The space in between the two walls has a mortar floor, which was probably originally tiled.  These remains have been confirmed to be of the church.  As lead archaeologist Richard Buckley announced:

The next step – which may include extending the trenches – will seek to gain more information on the church in the hope that we can identify the location of the choir and high altar. Finding the choir is especially important as this is where Richard III is recorded as having been buried.

He admitted that before the dig started he was not all that confident whether they would even be able to find the Greyfriars, as their first trenches could easily have missed the remains, or any remains might have been destroyed by later building activity in the area.  It is certainly not only the team that is excited “by the prospect of further discoveries over the next week or so which may take us closer to our goal”.  I am surely not the only one who checks every morning whether there have been any new developments!

Tags: Archaeology, Leicester, Leicester Greyfriars Dig, Richard III