UNSEEN for more than 450 years, the remarkable remains of Taunton’s 12th century Priory were going on show to the public in February 2005.
And, short of some bright spark inventing time travel, there won’t be another chance to step back in time like this for many generations.
The Augustinian Priory was built in the 12th and 13th centuries and destroyed on the orders of Henry VIII during the Reformation — the order for the monastic site to be dissolved was signed on February 10, 1540.
Since then, the only clues to where the medieval church once stood lay in the surrounding street names — such as Canon Street and St Augustine Street.
But an excavation of the former County Garage site, on the corner of Priory Avenue and Gyffarde Street, has revealed an archaeologists' paradise.
“This is the best find in Taunton for ten years,” said Somerset County Council’s development control archaeologist Steve Membery.
“Smaller digs in the past just revealed burials — the big mystery has always been, ‘Where was the Priory?’”
It turned out the answer lay just a few feet below the old garage floor and experts were taken aback at how much evidence of the old monastery they found.
“It was a surprise to us all to come across a series of four foundation blocks, including bases of seven columns,” said Mr Membery.
“We were also very lucky to find remnants of the north wall of the church itself and we have just found the west wall and front porch.”
At the edge of the excavation a yellowish stripe of earth marked the floor level of a cloister where the team also discovered pieces of painted glass from a window.
A number of bodies were found in stone coffins, lined up along the Priory’s nave, and Mr Membery described the preservation as “perfect”.
Archaeologists painstakingly excavated the site before it was to be used for a new block of flats and their dig continue for another few weeks.
The work was funded by developers H Gadd Homes Ltd and carried out by Context One archaeological contractors, in association with the county council’s Heritage Group.
*TAUNTON became an Augustinian town in the 12th century and The Bishop of Winchester was Lord of the Manor.
Monks were given a large amount of land around the edge of the medieval market town, stretching from Canon Street to St Margaret’s leper hospital in the east and north to Priorswood.
The Priory was built in around 1158 and stood for almost four centuries.
But when Henry VIII fell out with the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century, the monasteries were dissolved.
As the king became head of a new Church of England, the Reformation began.
Smaller monasteries were gone by 1536, with larger, more prosperous sites like the one in Taunton, following four years later.
The site of Taunton’s Priory was granted to Sir Thomas More and the original monastic buildings were demolished and landscaped.
Gardens remained until County Garage was built there in the early 20th century.
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