Grace Dieu Priory Ruins From The Chapter House

Grace Dieu Priory is probably one of Leicestershire's more forgotten treasures. Established around 1240 by Rohese de Verdon it housed nuns and poor people but fell victim to Henry VIII in 1538 when it was dissolved. The building was subsequently rebuilt by one of Henry's commissioners, John Beaumont into a grand tudor house. Today, there seems to be no clear view as to which parts of the ruins belong to the original priory.

William Wordsworth enjoyed the hidden woodland glen in Grace Dieu Woods when he stayed with his friend and patron Sir George Beaumont at nearby Coleorton House. He wrote:

“Beneath yon eastern ridge, the craggy bound,
Rugged and high, of Charnwood’s forest ground,
Stand yet, but, Stranger, hidden from thy view
The ivied ruins of forlorn Grace Dieu,
Erst a religious House, which day and night
With hymns resounded and the chanted rite.”

Rohese's body, after the dissolution of the priory, was moved to a nearby village of Belton and there are subsequently many stories of ghostly sightings, of a woman dressed in white which was the habit of the interned nuns. However, romantic as these tales are, I prefer the records left following the Bishop of Lincoln's inspection in 1440. He reported unlawful entertainment, lewd gossip, a lack of sexual restraint, social drinking,  incompetent senior nuns who failed to attend to priory business, preferring rather to frequent buildings where there were men and antics that including riding behind the chaplain on his horse!

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I am presently highly motivated to pursue my "Leicestershire Legacies" project and the Xmas break has provided an opportunity for me do some more research. This has been facilitated by an enforced "stay at home" with a virus and Shirley frogmarching me into the local computer store in order to buy an IPad to match the IPod Touch that I have found so valuable for "on the hoof note making". The IPad is a revelation, not as a photographer's tool, but as a device for finding, reading and compiling project information. I like using Evernote because it helps me to develop my project ideas and future plans as well as being a place to sort out my thoughts. Yes, my PC will do all these things too and much more beside. However, sitting at a desk isn't what I always want to do and with the IPad I am much more about studying rather than using my PC.   

Whilst photography is central to my "Leicestershire Legacies" project, an account of the local history is necessary to give it context and meaning. This has been a developing interest for me over the last couple of years. There is a lot of literature in existence about Leicestershire history, both textual and photographic, but most of what I have found so far tends to be of a factual nature or presents a dry record in time. The more I delve into the local history around where I live, the more intrigued I get to develop another view. 

Layers of history fascinate me; only meters away from the above ruins are the remains of a disused railway and those of an even older industrial canal, whilst on the other side runs a present day main road. Because of the internet, a plethora of historical documents are readily accessible and downloadable. There are many accounts of traveler's anecdotes and observations of people and places within Leicester over the centuries. A knowledge of these makes a seemingly dull environment suddenly feel alive with opportunity to tell another tale. What was common place 200 years ago is remarkable now, what was modern and necessary in medieval times may only exist in shadows on the landscape today, yet most of us don't know what there is on our doorsteps.

Photographically, all of this becomes very motivating. A big part of my photographic development over the last number of years has been to move away from making images of  the beauty of Britain and of the romance that goes with it (there's so many photographers doing it too, many so much better than I want to be as well). Local photographs, of more seemingly mundane subject, seem to me to become alive when there is a tale to tell about them. I accept that my choice of toned images probably injects a different type of romantic overlay, but I want to create a "history feel" and a link with past guides such as Hoskins' works; it also fits the subject matter well too.

What really does intrigue and suit me is the modus operandi that I have developed. Rather than planning to make a specific image, I visit a location armed with the knowledge of what I've read and then seek to respond by making images. The unexpected often happens and it can work out well when serendipity rewards my effort. I feel that the images are better for it as they are less contrived and have a meaning beyond which I could have ever planned. Such was the above image; on a dull day, just as we arrived at the scene, the light brightened and I had less than 5 minutes before it started to drizzle with rain for the rest of the outing.