Medieval priory wall lost for a decade exposed

Volunteers spent a day uncovering a wall lost in the undergrowth for over a decade

Part of a ruined Leicestershire priory lost in undergrowth for more than a decade has been uncovered.

A team of National Highways traffic officers helped clear part of the 800-year-old Grace Dieu Priory near Thringstone.

With their day of volunteering, the Shepshed-based team managed to clear brambles and vegetation which had swallowed up part of the site’s original boundary wall.

Visitors to the site can now see the 800-year-old masonry once more.

National Highways team manager Mark Endacott said it was “a great day” for the volunteers.

He said: “The work seemed to be well received by dog walkers and we even rescued a frog that we were able to return to the local stream.”

The work was "back-breaking" but "brilliant" said National Highways

The priory dates back to 1239 as a community of Augustinian Catholic women, which closed in 1538 during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.

It was later converted into a Tudor house but from the late 16th Century the buildings fell into disrepair.

These ruins are now cared for by the Friends of Grace Dieu Priory.

David Whitt, chairman of the group, said: “The masonry is part of the old Priory boundary wall, and there are bits and pieces of it all the way down to the A512.

“But over the years it has become overgrown - National Highways did a superb job of exposing the wall once more.”

Alison Brand-Barker, at the National Forest Company - which organised the work - said as well as clearing vegetation, new habitats for insects, mammals and fungi were created.

She added the Friends group was “thrilled” with the work.