REPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1900 209 



Appendix B. 

 Hulne Priory. — -By George Reavell, Esq., junr., Alnwick. 



Hulne Priory is an establishment of the White Friars or 

 Carmelites, and in point of date was either the first or second 

 house of that order in England, the other claimant for priority 

 being- Aylesford. It is said to have been founded by William 

 de Yesci, but the earliest documentary evidence of period 

 is an undated charter of John de Vesci, which must have 

 been granted between 1265 and 1288 a.d. The ruins are 

 more complete as regards plan than those of any other 

 Carmelite house in England, and Clarkson's survey (made in 

 1567 for the seventh Earl of Northumberland) enables us 

 — together with the excavations made by the late Duke of 

 Northumberland — to make out the position and use of the 

 various parts of the building. 



The church where the Club gathered for the examination 

 of the buildings is a simple aisleless parallelogram. 119 feet 

 long by 19 feet 6 inches broad. Various items of interpst 

 were pointed out in the church, amongst others being the 

 sedilia and piscina, sculptured monuments, and the socket for 

 the lectern. It was also shown that the present east wall 

 is only a piece of sham ruin, of which there are several 

 examples. 



The vestry was visited, and the curious recess with its stone 

 shelf and chimney and sloped and drained lower shelf was 

 examined, and Mr St. John Hope's theory of its purport put 

 forward as a probable one. After looking into the chapter 

 house and other buildings on the east, the cloister was entered, 

 where the old roofing arrangement for the cloister walks 

 was pointed out, those jiorth an^ south having beeji qoyered 



