The St Clement's church, and later the Dominican priory, would come to be established inside the far north west corner of the (now vanished) city walls of Ratae Corieltauvorum - the Roman town at the core of modern Leicester.

[2] In the mid 13th century its advowson was passed to the Order of Preaches (Blackfriars), who constructed convent buildings adjacent to it, and it became a priory church.

[4][5][6] Dedicated to St Clement of Rome[3] (an early Pope and Martyr) and with unknown 11th century origins it stood in the northwest part of the old Roman city, probably on what is now All Saints Road.

Clearly buried with Christian honour and in a position parallel to the church, it has been suggested that the 254 are victims of a famine in 1087 reported by the Anglo Saxon Chronicle.

Unusually 96 pairs of skeletons were found in double graves suggesting the site was used for the burial of married couples.

[3] It is also possible the records of the parish dissolution are simply missing and that the building was handed over in its entirety to be a Priory Church (see Discussion on Location 2.1, & 2.2).

In 1536 before the priory was dissolved and the church demolished John Leland, the antiquary, recorded this after visiting: “I saw in the quire of the Blake-Freres the tumbes of… [manuscript text missing or illegible]… and a flat alabaster stone [with] the name of Lady Isabel, w[ife] to Sr. John Beauchaump of Ho[lt.] And in the north isle I saw the tumbe of another knight without scripture.

These thinges brevely (i.e. briefly) I markid at Leyrcester.”[11] John Leland's few lines constitute the only surviving witness testimony of the building.

The 13th century was a period of rapid and significant reform for both religious life and the wider church in Europe, marked by the establishment of many new communities.

[13] These orders sought to bring the monastic example and a more professional spiritual ministry to the town, partly by observing the Liturgy of the Hours and monastic community life in accessible reach of townsfolk, and also by providing professional religious ministry and education, as well as medical and pastoral care to the growing urban population.

[14][15] The Blackfriars (also called Friars Preachers) were and continue to be focussed on prayer and liturgy, academic scholarship (primarily but far from exclusively philosophical, theological, and biblical), teaching and education, scholarly and rhetorical excellence in public preaching, and pastoral and charity work in urban areas.

The 5th Earl believed very strongly in the power of Dominic's prayers in his military battles and had his daughter baptised by the saint.

It is likely the Earl's young son, the famous Simon de Montfort also met Dominic while accompanying his father on these campaigns.

[16] It is very difficult to date precisely both the arrival of the first friars to Leicester and the subsequent establishment of their priory at St Clement's (see discussion).

The presence of the priory is remembered in the name of Blackfriars Street and Friars Causeway (which possibly marked the southern border of the site before its western section was demolished for the construction of the Great Central Railway).

[19] The priory was dissolved as part of King Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries and was surrendered in November 1538.