A plaque on the building states "site of establishment of Friars Observant founded in 1499 by Henry VII. (1)

The Friary was founded by Henry VII c 1499, but established in 1507 according to Little. On being dissolved in 1534, it was occupied by the Austin Friars until 1539. (2)

Excavations in advance of construction work, 1978, revealed 3 stone walls and passageway with traces of stone steps and doorway - the end of a building ? Little dating evidence, but possibly part of the C16 Friary complex. Finds include a silver coin of Elizabeth I, a bridle bit, copper pins and a fragment of a Bellarmine jug. (3)

Digging of water trench observed in 1982 - some walling, C18 bottle dump, stone culvert (recent ?). (4)

Layout of buildings not sure, description of 1544-7 gives mansion house, church, cemetery, and gardens etc - friars may have been accommodated in the equivalent of a large town house. Only the line of the boundary remains. (5) (6)

It is not known what the old Friary looked like as no contemporary drawings exist except for its appearance in a print of Newark in Cornelius Brown's 'History of Newark'. Also within this work is a description 'a long, chapel-like building of stone with a large gothic window at its west end' (Brown 1904; Stephens 1996). It is known that during the early part of the sixteenth centurya number of people gave money to the Friary which may have been used to make improvements to the building (Stephens 1996, 11). In 1534, the Observant Friars were driven from the Newark Friary by Henry VIII's men to be replaced by the Austin Friars. From the remains of the Friary was built the beginnings of a fine manor house, which still exists today. (7)

Prior to tree-ring analysis being undertaken, the Friary had been dated on documentary evidence to some time between AD 1475 and AD 1507 and destroyed when the Austin Friars left, c. AD 1539; at present this is the only dating available. After the original dendrochronological analysis, it was suggested that more sampling should be carried out. No dating was published of the original analysis and the present analysis has not changed this as all samples were unsuccessfully dated. (7)

See M3637 for P Med house, M8494 for Civil War earthworks, M18182 for Cemetery, M18318 for SE boundary wall.

<1> Harper FR, 1962, Pers Comm (Personal comment). SNT748.

<2> Knowles D and Hadcock N, 1971, Medieval Religious Houses (2nd edn), pp 230-1,240,242 (Published document). SNT867.

<3> EMAB eds, 1979-82, East Midlands Archaeological Bulletin, p 23 (Published document). SNT164.

<4> NCC Archaeology Team, Site Book 1, pp 16-21 (Unpublished document). SNT307.

<5> NCC Archaeology Team, Site Book 3, pp 38-97 (Unpublished document). SNT309.

<6> Bishop MW, 1980, The Friary, Newark (Unpublished document). SNT502.

<7> A.J. Arnold, R.E Howard, R.R Laxton, C.D Litton, 2002, The Urban Development of Newark-on-Trent: A Dendrochronological Approach (Monograph). SNT1624.