Beckery (Little Ireland)

Beckery was once the main industrial area of Glastonbury and was home to Beckery Mill, which later became Baily's Tannery and Glove Factory. It was fed by a steam connected to the River Brue that also powered the Northover mill which was owned by Clarks, Son and Morland, who moved from their old site in Street to the area near to Beckery in 1870. The site in Northover was originally built while Richard Beere was the Abbot of Glastonbury (1493 -1524), a medieval mill was built around 1517. After taking on the Grade II listed buildings in 1870 - It ceased trading in 1925.[3]

Within the area of Beckery, there is a site known locally as ‘St. Brigid’s Chapel’ which was thought to represent a minor monastic site, possibly with a holy shrine known as an oratory.'[4] Despite the chapel now lying in ruin, it is a popular destination for pilgrims and is used as an Archaeological 'training site' which allows people to follow in the footsteps of the three well documented excavations that took place at the site over the last 150 years.[5] John Morland first excavated the site in 1967 and documented Two Chapels - One built within the other.[6]

During the 1967 excavation, this time by the Archaeologist Philip Rahtz,'some 50 to 60 skeletons were found.' all of the skeletons are believed to have been related to the small Monastery. Then in 2016 the Chapel site was excavated once more where 'Carbon dating revealed the remains, discovered at Beckery Chapel, near Glastonbury, were from the 5th or early 6th Century AD. Site director Dr Richard Brunning said: "It's the earliest archaeological evidence we've got for monasticism."' [7] The remains of a Priests House and cemetery were also noted and the site has been confirmed as 'the oldest monastery in the British Isles.'[8]

William of Malmesbury documented her link to Beckery and wrote; ‘Hence the custom developed among the Irish of visiting that place to kiss the relics of their patron. Whence the well known story that Saint Indract and the Blessed Brigid, prominent citizens of that land, once frequented the place. They say that after Saint Brigid, who had come there in 488 AD, had tarried for some time on the island called Beokery [Beckery] she returned home but left behind certain of her ornaments, namely a bag, necklace, a small bell and weaving implements, which are still preserved in memory of her.’[9]

John of Glastonbury also remarked that 'Saint Brigid made a stay of several years on an island near Glastonbury, called Bekery or Little Ireland, where there was an oratory consecrated in honour of Saint Mary Magdalene. She left there certain signs of her presence—her wallet, collar, bell, and weaving implements, which are exhibited and honoured there because of her holy memory—and she returned to Ireland, where, not much later, she rested in the Lord and was buried in the city of Down. The chapel on that island is now dedicated in honour of Saint Brigid; on its south side there is an opening through which, according to the belief of the common folk, anyone who passes will receive forgiveness of all his sins.'[10]