Indicated — Gardens (kilkenny City By., St. John's Par.)

The priory of the Augustinian canons of St John the Evangelist occupied much of the medieval walled suburb of St John’s which was located on the E bank of the River Nore. It consisted of an area of c. 2 acres within a walled precinct, currently defined by Back Lane to the N, the town wall/Michael Street to the E, John Street to the S and the mill-stream 'the Little River', c. 25m E of the Carnegie Library on John’s Quay, to the W. There were several gateways into the precinct, including St Michael’s Gate at the W end of Michael Street, Cart Gate mid-way along Back Lane and it is likely that there was also an entrance from John’s Street (Bradley 2011, 336, 340). The priory was founded by the earl of Pembroke William Marshal to replace the earlier, possibly pre-Anglo-Norman, St. John the Evangelist’s Hospital, which is thought to have been sited around Green's Bridge to the N (Egan 1884, 260-3; Carrigan 1905, Vol. 3, 243; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 182; Farrelly et al. 1993, 62; Bradley 2000, 13; Bradley 2011, 318-19). The precise foundation date of St John’s is not known but it would appear that its new lands were allocated by 1211 and its original grant was confirmed by a charter from William Marshal the younger c. 1223 (McNeill 1931, 63; Ledwich 1781, 528-9; Bradley 2005, 65 n. 9). In the charter, the younger Marshal granted to the Augustinian brothers the site, ‘in honour of God and St John the Evangelist and to sustain the poor and indigent’. The church consisted of a nave and chancel in the 13th century, with a tower at the junction which may have been built slightly later (Bradley 2011, 331). A Lady Chapel was added to the priory church in 1290 and in 1325 the priory was substantially rebuilt; the bell tower collapsed in 1329-1330 and was probably rebuilt in the 15th century (Bradley 2000, 13; Bradley 2011, 319, 331-2). Place’s c. 1698 drawing of Kilkenny, from the SW, shows St John’s with a long nave, with a series of what appear to be lancet windows, a substantial tower and a chancel (Bradley 2011, 331). Following the surrender of the priory to the commissioners in March 1540 its property and lands were granted to the Corporation and citizens of Kilkenny and like the rest of the city’s monastic holdings these were subsequently parcelled out amongst the ruling oligarchy (White 1943, 178; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 182; Bradley 2011, 322). The precinct and its possessions in the town were described at this time as follows: 'a church, belfry and cemetery, a hall, dormitory, six chambers, a kitchen, store, granary, two orchards, three gardens and sundry other closes, containing four acres, within the precincts of the priory; also ... twenty four messuages, thirty-three gardens, one hundred acres of arable land, twenty of pasture, ten of meadow and ten of wood; a water-mill, a pigeon house, and 3s annual rent, with the appurtenances in Kilkenny, of the yearly value, beside all reprises, of 14s 4d. ...' (Archdall 1786, 370). Its total holdings at the Dissolution amounted to over 240 acres, a grange, ten messuages, 40 gardens, the Maudlin mill, a wood called ‘Chanons grove’ with 200 acres of land adjoining and a further 200 acres in Drakelands as well as an interest in eight churches (Egan 1884, 262; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 182). In 1615 the nave and chancel of St John’s priory was in ruins and by 1628, when it is recorded in a rental roll, its precinct and lands were in the ownership predominantly of the Rothe, Archdekin, Shee and Langton merchant families (Ledwich 1781, 403-4; Bradley 2011, 328-31). The rental (reprinted by Edward Ledwich) provides information on some of the buildings that occupied the site at this time: ‘two chambers in the cloister of St. John’s and orchard near the cloyster’, ‘the cart gate, castle, and out stall in St. John’s cloyster’, ‘the bake-house at St. John’s and the Prior’s fires’, ‘chapter house within the cloyster’ and 'rooms from the entry of St. John’s Abbey towards the outer St. John’s gate’ (Ledwich 1781, 403-4). Analysis of the rental and Kilkenny Corporation leases, as well as a limited amount of information yielded from archaeological excavations, allows the general layout of the main priory precinct after the Dissolution, and by extension much of its medieval layout, to be reconstructed (Bradley 2011, 331-43). The church, positioned just S of centre, dominated the precinct. The chapter house was located immediately N of the crossing tower and the cloister occupied the position immediately N of the nave (ibid. 332). The W range of the cloister housed the prior’s chambers at ground-floor level and the dorter or dormitory of the canons on the first-floor (ibid. 334). Portion of the rib-vaulted ground-floor of the NE angle of the W range survives. Within a pointed arched recess there is a pointed doorway, now blocked up, exiting to the N, and another, also blocked up, exiting to the E, to the former cloister. The N range may have originally housed the kitchen and rectory, however, post the Dissolution the kitchen and rectory occupied only the NW angle of the cloister, extending northward, with a stable in the central part of this range and a chamber attached to the E (ibid. 333). A bake-house, brew house and barn were located in the N portion of the precinct, with a lime-kiln in the NE angle (ibid. 335-8). The vicar occupied a chamber immediately W of the church and S of this there was a hospital, possibly at 19-21 John Street Lower, which was sited in the SW corner of the precinct (ibid. 338-9). There were also gardens within the precinct to supply the needs of the kitchen and the infirmary (ibid. 340-41). The graveyard (KK019-026235-) is located S of the church. Bradley (2011, 333) mentions that there are several references in the 16th century, ‘to at least six houses, two of one bay, one of two bays, and two of four bays, between the churchyard [graveyard] and the street, none of which survive above ground level, as well as a house adjoining St Michael’s Gate on the E side. The priory also owned property outside the boundary of the precinct, including orchards immediately to the W (ibid. 334, 341-3). In 1645 a Jesuit chapel and college were briefly established at the priory but in the late 17th-century much of the nave of the church, with its two square towers, and many of the domestic buildings were levelled and the materials used to construct a military barracks, which was in turn converted into an asylum in 1818 (Bradley 2000, 22; Clohosey 1946-7, 62). Today, most of the chancel, the Lady Chapel (incorporated into the present St John's C of I church in 1817), a fragment of the nave, as well as parts of the W range survive above ground level (Farrelly et al. 1993, 58). The priory church is constructed of limestone rubble roughly coursed and is orientated NE-SW (described as E-W for convenience). A late 18th-century illustration by Wheatley (https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000550645; accessed 5 April 2022), viewed from the E, shows the E gable and the E end of the S wall of the roofless chancel with the E gable and S wall of the roofless Lady Chapel in the foreground. The E gable of another smaller building is depicted projecting from the W end of the S wall of the Lady Chapel. The chancel survives as depicted. It has a clasping buttress on the NE and SE angle. The E gable is dominated by two sets of graded three-light cusped trefoil- pointed windows, the central window of each set being higher. Externally the window heads have hood-mouldings with decorative label-stops, including head-stops. There are two relieving arches, one over each tripartite arrangement. Centrally placed in the gable above these windows is a quartrefoil window and above this there is a narrow flat-headed single-light window with external chamfer. Internally both tripartite arrangements are set within moulded rear-arches carried on banded shafts. Leask (1966, vol. 2, 109) suggests that the E window grouping is stylistically too ear