friary

Most of the dead were buried in town cemeteries or plague pits such as one on Bene't Street next to the former friary.

The city council and University of Leicester archaeologists excavated the site which had been a friary until its demolition in 1538.

By the mid-20th Century, what had once been a religious friary had become a site for a school, council offices and a car park.

Old Hall, which dates back to the 16th Century, was a convent, an army barracks and a friary before it was bought in 1974 by 14 families who formed the community.

The difference may be due to monks manuring crops in friary gardens with their own faeces, the study suggests.