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7 unusual facts about Greyfriars


Franciscan monastery, Piran

The first church on top of the hill was already built in 1301, when a nearby church begun to be built by Greyfriars.

Greyfriars, Coventry

From later documents it is evident that Ranulf de Blondeville, Earl of Chester, permitted them to erect their house on his manor of Cheylesmore, on the south-west side of the city.

Greyfriars, Leicester

Stow suggested Gilbert and Ellen Luenor were the actual founders, whilst antiquarian Francis Peck has suggested that John Pickering was either the founder or a very early benefactor of the friary.

Greyfriars, London

The building currently standing on the site, designed by Arup, is currently occupied by Merrill Lynch International.

John Vicars

John Vicars (1582, London-12 April 1652, Christ's Hospital, Greyfriars, London) was an English contemporary biographer, poet and polemicist of the English Civil War.

Piran

Musical Evenings of Piran have taken place for decades in Greyfriars Franciscan monastery's atrium, one of the most beautiful cloister atriums in the Slovenian Littoral, which has a very good acoustics.

Stoneygate

By 1876 WBS was on his own – not sure what happened to Dain – and was practising from Greyfriars Chambers, 7 Friar Lane, Leicester, where he continued to work until his death in 1899.


2013 in archaeology

February 4 - DNA evidence confirms that bones found in 2012 at the site of Greyfriars, Leicester, are those of King Richard III of England.

Beatrice of Falkenburg

Her husband was buried next to his second wife, Sanchia of Provence, but Beatrice may have organised the burial of his heart at the Franciscan church at Greyfriars, Oxford.

Clan MacLellan

The castle's beginnings lie in the Reformation of 1560 which led to the abandonment of the Convent of Greyfriars which had stood on the site now occupied by the castle since 1449.

Cumbernauld Castle

The first castle was owned by the Comyn Family and was granted to the Fleming family after Robert the Bruce killed John 'the Red' Comyn in 1306 in Greyfriars kirk.

Greyfriars Kirkyard

Greyfriars Churchyard and, in particular, MacKenzie's Poltergeist, have been featured on paranormal TV programmes, including Fox's Scariest Places on Earth, and ITV's Extreme Ghost Stories.

Lewin's Mead

The area was situated outside the medieval city walls and was partly occupied by the estate of St Bartholomew's Hospital and also by Greyfriars, Bristol.

Mark Elvins

Following the retirement of Dr Nicholas James Richardson in 2007, Elvins was appointed Warden of Greyfriars, Oxford and upon the dissolution of the permanent private hall was appointed Guardian of the friary (Greyfriars) from 2008 t0 2011.

Seton Airlie

Born in Carmyle, Airlie played in Scotland, France and England for Greyfriars, Celtic, Cannes and Worcester City.

The Howff

David Lindsay, 1st Earl of Crawford (c.1360-1407), interred in the now destroyed pre-reformation Greyfriars kirk.

Walter Blount, 1st Baron Mountjoy

On his death on 1 August 1474 in Greyfriars, London his grandson Edward Blount, 2nd Baron Mountjoy inherited his title.

Whitefriars Housing Group

The name 'Whitefriars' (and also Greyfriars) comes from a Coventry monastery of the same name founded in around 1342, and gradually expanded as charitable donations and funding became available.

Winker Watson

Probably modeled on the Greyfriars stories and on Harry Wharton, Winker is a pupil of the Third Form of Greytowers Boarding School, he is known as the "wangler" of the school, constantly playing tricks and avoiding unpleasant school activities, much to the chagrin of his teacher Mr Clarence Creep (known to the boys as Creepy).

York Bluecoat School

The blue coats worn by the boys were based on the uniform of Christ's Hospital School in Greyfriars, London.


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