The Augustinian Priory of St Mary, Norton Priory, Runcorn, Cheshire

Oxford Archaeology North, 2011. https://doi.org/10.5284/1000134. How to cite using this DOI

Digital Object Identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers which can be used to consistently and accurately reference digital objects and/or content. The DOIs provide a way for the ADS resources to be cited in a similar fashion to traditional scholarly materials. More information on DOIs at the ADS can be found on our help page.

Citing this DOI

The updated Crossref DOI Display guidelines recommend that DOIs should be displayed in the following format:

https://doi.org/10.5284/1000134
Sample Citation for this DOI

Oxford Archaeology North (2011) The Augustinian Priory of St Mary, Norton Priory, Runcorn, Cheshire [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1000134

Data copyright © Norton Priory Museum Trust, Oxford Archaeology North unless otherwise stated

This work is licensed under the ADS Terms of Use and Access.
Creative Commons License


English Heritage logo

Primary contact

Rachel Newman
Director
Oxford Archaeology North
Mill 3
Moor Lane Mills
Moor Lane
Lancaster
LA1 1QD
UK
Tel: 01524 541000
Fax: 01524 848606

Send e-mail enquiry

Resource identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers

Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) are persistent identifiers which can be used to consistently and accurately reference digital objects and/or content. The DOIs provide a way for the ADS resources to be cited in a similar fashion to traditional scholarly materials. More information on DOIs at the ADS can be found on our help page.

Citing this DOI

The updated Crossref DOI Display guidelines recommend that DOIs should be displayed in the following format:

https://doi.org/10.5284/1000134
Sample Citation for this DOI

Oxford Archaeology North (2011) The Augustinian Priory of St Mary, Norton Priory, Runcorn, Cheshire [data-set]. York: Archaeology Data Service [distributor] https://doi.org/10.5284/1000134

Oxford Archaeology North logo
Norton Priory Museum Trust logo

Introduction

Photograph of Norton Priory

Founded in 1134, the priory remained active until its dissolution in April 1536. Within eight years of the dissolution, it was sold to the Brooke family, who owned it for over 400 years. In 1966, the site of the priory, by now in a state of considerable decay, was given to the Runcorn Development Corporation by Sir Richard Brooke. Very little of the medieval priory remained visible, and it was decided to excavate and display the ruins as a public amenity for the growing new town of Warrington-Runcorn. They were excavated over a protracted period between 1970 and 1987, and remain one of the most extensively investigated religious foundations in Europe. At the Dissolution, the west range of the priory was converted to domestic use by the Brooke family, who later, in the eighteenth century, built a new Classical house on the site, which was largely demolished in 1928. The post-Dissolution remains were also excavated and recorded.

Reflecting the times, few clear aims or objectives were stated for the excavations, beyond revealing and interpreting the monastic ruins for public display. The original excavator, J Patrick Green, published a well-received summary of the excavations in 1989 (Norton Priory: the archaeology of a medieval religious house), concentrating on interpretation of the claustral buildings and their wider context, rather than bringing the huge and nationally significant body of material culture into the public domain. The Norton Priory Museum Trust, founded in 1975, and having constructed a museum on the site in 1982, with the express aim of providing an educational and recreational resource for the local community, approached English Heritage for funding to help bring the archaeological record and the material archive to public notice. Subsequently the Trust commissioned Oxford Archaeology North to undertake the analysis and interpretation. This aim was achieved, with the publication, in 2008, of Norton Priory: monastery to museum. Excavations 1970-87.

The dataset comprises detailed records (in the form of databases) of stratigraphic data generated by the excavations, and the substantial parts of the material archive, including the medieval and later vessel glass, the medieval and later pottery, the medieval and later metalwork (copper alloy, iron, and lead objects), the bone and ivory objects, the wooden and leather objects of medieval and later date. Other elements of the material archive, for instance the medieval floor tiles and the medieval stonework, are described in full in the 2008 publication.

The dataset also includes a detailed catalogue of the skeletal evidence, complementing the more discursive account given in the publication.


ADS logo
Data Org logo
University of York logo