Canterbury Cathedral (Part Four)

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unless otherwise stated.

Canterbury Cathedral Tower's Ceiling.

Photo: April 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana.

(Wikimedia Commons).

Monastic Buildings

A bird's-eye view of the Cathedral and its monastic buildings, made in about 1165 and known as the "waterworks plan", is preserved in the Eadwine Psalter in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. It shows that Canterbury employed the same general principles of arrangement common to all Benedictine monasteries, although, unusually, the Cloister and monastic buildings were to the North, rather than the South, of the Church. There was a separate Chapter-House.

The buildings formed separate groups around the Church. Adjoining it, on the North side, stood the Cloister and the buildings devoted to the monastic life. To the East and West of these, were those devoted to the exercise of hospitality. To the North, a large open court divided the monastic buildings from menial ones, such as the stables, granaries, barn, bakehouse, brew house and laundries, inhabited by the lay servants of the establishment. 

At the greatest possible distance from the Church, beyond the precinct of the monastery, was the eleemosynary department. The Almonry for the relief of the poor, with a great Hall annexed, formed the paupers' hospitium.

Canterbury Cathedral Cloisters.

Photo: April 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana.

(Wikimedia Commons)

The group of buildings devoted to monastic life included two Cloisters. The Great Cloister was surrounded by the buildings essentially connected with the daily life of the monks: The Church to the South, with the Refectory placed, as always, on the side opposite; The Dormitory, raised on a vaulted Undercroft, and the Chapter-House adjacent, and the lodgings of the Cellarer, responsible for providing both monks and guests with food, to the West. A passage under the Dormitory lead Eastwards to the smaller, or Infirmary, Cloister, appropriated to sick and infirm monks.

The Hall and Chapel of the Infirmary extended East of this Cloister, resembling in form and arrangement the Nave and Chancel of an aisled Church. Beneath the Dormitory, overlooking the green court or herbarium, lay the "pisalis" or "calefactory," the Common Room of the monks. At its North-East corner, access was given from the Dormitory to the necessarium, a building in the form of a Norman Hall, 145 ft long by 25 ft broad (44.2 m × 7.6 m), containing fifty-five seats. It was constructed with careful regard to hygiene, with a stream of water running through it from end to end.

A second, smaller, Dormitory, for the Conventual Officers, ran from East to West. Close to the Refectory, but outside the Cloisters, were the domestic offices connected with it: to the North, the Kitchen, 47 ft (14 m) square, with a pyramidal Roof, and the Kitchen Court; to the West, the Butteries, Pantries, etc. The Infirmary had a small Kitchen of its own. Opposite the Refectory Door, in the Cloister, were two Lavatories, where the monks washed before and after eating.

Canterbury Cathedral Stained Glass Windows.

Photo: April 2011.

Source: Own work.

Author: Mattana.

(Wikimedia Commons)

PART FIVE FOLLOWS