York Historic Environment Record

Part of the medieval cemetery of St Benet's church was excavated in 1989-90. A total of 99 inhumations was removed from trenches designed to investigate the limits of the cemetery. Many of the burials were within oak coffins; the lid of one was decorated with an incised Nine Mens Morris board. The precise location of St Benets Church is not known. The church of ST. BENET is first mentioned in 1154 when, together with St. Sampson's, it was given by Stephen to Pontefract Priory. It was then said to have been formerly in the hands of William, son of Rainer, a king's clerk. This grant may have been revoked. The church is later associated with the vicars choral of the minster, to whom St. Sampson's was granted in the 14th century. Nothing is known of the history of the church in the 13th century although the parish is several times mentioned. By 1338 the fabric had so far decayed as to have become a refuse heap, and a mortmain licence was obtained by the archbishop to use the land in support of the chantries of the minster. This plan was not executed and in 1359 a further licence was obtained to assign the plot on which the church had stood to the vicars choral, amongst whose endowments it remained until they were taken over by the Church Commissioners. The church was no doubt close to, or upon a site at the junction of the present Grape Lane and Swinegate, known in 1852 as 'Bennet's Rents'. No trace of the parish has survived.