A Comprehensive History of Norwich

by A. D. Bayne

Friaries.

This class of monastic institutions consisted of houses erected for the Friars, of orders grey, or white, or black. The monasteries were seldom endowed, because the Friars were, by profession, beggars, and lived on what they could get. They obtained a great deal of money in the ages of superstition. Many of their buildings were large and stately, and connected with noble churches in which great personages were frequently interred. Most of the monasteries were houses of refuge for the destitute poor in the middle ages.

The Grey or Franciscan Friars seem to have been the first who settled here near the site of Cooke’s Hospital about 1226. This convent was a place of great resort, and the church, as already stated in our notice of the Desecrated Churches, was a large building 300 feet in length, and 80 feet in breadth, with spacious cloisters and conventual buildings; not a stone of which now remains. One of the cloisters of this convent was called “Pardon Cloister,” on account of the pope granting indulgences to all who were buried there, a source of revenue to the monks. At the Dissolution the possessions were granted to the Duke of Norfolk.

The White Friars or Carmelites had a flourishing convent near White Friars’ Bridge, which was founded by Philip de Cowgate in 1256. He assumed the name from his estates, being the principal person in those parts of the city. The monks were called White Friars from their dress, and Carmelites from the monastery of Mount Carmel in Palestine, the place of their first residence, from which they were driven by the Saracens about the year 1238, after which they settled in different parts of Europe. The monastery has been long demolished, and the site built upon.

The Black Friars, sometimes called the Dominican Friars or Friars’ Preachers, settled here about 1226, in the church of St. John the Baptist, which formerly stood in Colegate Street, on the site of the Octagon Chapel. They afterwards removed into the parish of St. Andrew, where they built a large monastery. The name of the church is now St. Andrew’s Hall.

Austin Friary. The possessions of this convent were bounded on the north by St. Faith’s Lane, and extended as far as the river. At the Dissolution they were granted to Sir Thomas Heneage.

The Friars De Domina arose in 1288, and in 1290 were introduced here. They had a house on the south side of St. Julian’s Churchyard, where they continued till the reign of Edward III., when, all the brethren dying of the great pestilence of 1348, their convent became private property.

The Friars of St. Mary occupied a house situated in the yard of the desecrated church of St. Martin in Balliva, where the Golden Ball Tavern stood. They joined the order of White Friars.

The Friars De Pica or Pied Friars, so called from their black and white garments, lived in a college at the corner of the churchyard of St. Peter Parmentergate. They joined one of the other orders.

The Friars De Sacco, or Brethren of the Sac, settled here about 1250 in a house opposite to the church of St. Peter’s Hungate. The whole premises, bounded by Bridge Street on the west, by the river on the north, and by the street leading to Hungate on the south, were settled on them, where they built a church, dedicated to the Virgin Mary, on the site of which St. Andrew’s Hall now stands. The Black Friars were united with them in 1307, when the convent was greatly enlarged, extending to the river on the north side, and to Elm Hill on the east side.