ALB-Historic England-Emergency Investigation Assistance: Brunel Court, Preston, Lancashire (360G-cabinetoffice-GA-255735)

In 2007, Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was commissioned to undertake a watching brief during excavation of the basement for an hotel at Brunel Court, on the corner of Marsh Lane and Ladywell Street, Preston, Lancashire (SD 5310 2990). Although the general area of Brunel Court had been extensively remodelled through a succession of industrial-period and modern major infrastructure projects, it lies very close to the presumed site of Preston’s medieval friary (PRN 1416). There is little published information on this Franciscan Friary, other than that it was probably founded around 1260 under the custody of the main Franciscan house at Worcester, and comprised a small quadrangle with cloisters and a chapel. Post-Dissolution, the friary buildings were sold as a private residence, became a gaol in 1680 and, by the early nineteenth century, had been destroyed by construction of the Lancaster Canal. It was therefore believed that little of the site had survived.