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MOBBERLEY SURVEY
© D.C. Pierce and M.
Hardiman
MOBBERLEY
SURVEY
At
the request of the National Trust, S.T.A.G has been carrying out a
resistivity survey to locate the site of the Augustinian priory at
Mobberley, but it is unlikely that much of the original material will have
survived. The search is further complicated by the fact that during the
Second World War, both British and American servicemen were housed in
temporary buildings on the site, and it is expected that a lot of rubble
will have been left behind when these buildings were demolished. An
enormous area around Mobberley Parish Church and the Rectory, c.18,OOO
sq.metres, was surveyed The results show many anomalies with several
phases. The priory is generally assumed to lie under the rectory and
rectory garden, and one or two anomalies at the north end of the garden
look promising.
The
results of the resistivity survey, undertaken by S.T.A.G, have enhanced
and expanded the Fluxgate gradiometer survey carried out by ArchaeoPhysica
in 1998.
As
at Norton Priory, the canons would have initially constructed timber
buildings for their priory, but being the most important building, the
church would have been the first to be built in stone. Since work on the
church did not start until 1245, by the time it was finished the priory
would have been in decline. Other buildings, such as a dormitory,
refectory, chapter house, cloisters, etc., would almost certainly have
remained timber structures.
Research
in the area of the church is also being carried out. A scratch or mass
dial, dating the medieval period, can be seen on the external south wall.
This dial, similar to a
sun dial, allowed the bell-ringers to gauge the correct time to call the
villagers to mass. To date, only a few scratch dials have been recorded
throughout the country, that at Mobberley Church will add to the list.
In the churchyard is the base and partial shaft of a medieval stone
cross.
Mention
of a tithe-barn on the adjacent farm saw the survey team hot-foot it to
the farm to have a look. Three of the original four cruckframes were in
fairly good condition and permission was given for us to survey them. Two
small sondages in the adjacent paddock confirmed a cobbled layer c.O.55m
below ground level. This was cut by a rubble in-filled trench.
Unfortunately, there was no datable evidence for these layers, but from
the top layer several fragments of late 19th/early 20th century pottery
were recovered.