254 THE GROUND-PLAN OF BURTON ABBEY. 
Spott was buried in the cloister under a stone arch against 
the door of the upper church. In the excavations, a stone 
coffin was found ciose to this door, but Dr. Perks informs 
me that the skull was that of a Norman, not a Saxon. 
Before we leave the cloister let us see what we can get 
from the Chronicle about the building. Robert Onsbey, 
Abbot 1430-1432, in 1430 laid the first stone of the new 
cloister which was rebuilt from the north west angle, but 
which way is not said; it could not have been a total re- 
building, for the work was finished the same year, and we 
have evidence that more work was done after. for in Abbot 
Ralph Henley’s time, Bishop William Heyworth, of Coventy 
and Lichfield, left £40 towards the building of the cloister ; 
Henley being buried in the north part, points to that being 
done in his day, as it was the custom to bury an Abbot 
close to the work he had done. We now leave the cloister 
and ascend the stairs in the south east corner. This brings 
us to the 
MONKS’ DORTER. 
This, at first, was one long open room, extending the full 
length from the church, but later, it was divided into cubicles 
for each monk, with a passage down the centre, the novices 
having those to the south end. As the monks became 
fewer rooms were taken off, and finally, the range was 
divided into small rooms for each monk. Shaw’s plan 
(plate I, fig. 1) gives the late division of the dorter, and 
is most interesting, as it shows that about the time of the 
dissolution the number had shrunk to 12 monks. What 
the other chambers were used for we have no evidence, 
but, very likely, here was the library. At the end of the 
dorter, towards the south, Shaw shows a room which must 
have been the rere dorter, or necessaria, entered from 
the dorter as at Westminster. Descending the stairs and 
passing through the door or opening that there must have 
been between the stair and the frater house, and going 
