PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



PETERBOROUGH 



The west side of the wall has been refhced and its 

 story obliterated, so that nothing can be said of the 

 arrangement of the building into which they led. 



The cloister had at first a pent roof, which pro- 

 bably rested at the lower end on rows of open arches. 

 Before the fire of 1116, and indeed until after the 

 opening of the new presbytery in 1140, the nave of 

 the Saxon church stood on the site of the north walk 

 of the cloister, but it is probable that the other walks 

 were rebuilt with the rebuilding of the claustral 

 buildings. The date of the completion of the cloister 

 is given by the notice of its covering with lead by 

 William of Waterville, 1155-75. The south wall 

 of the church and the building west of the south 

 transept must have been built when this was done. 



'I'here is no record of further work to the cloister, 

 but from existing evidence it is clear that it was com- 

 pletely rebuilt in the 1 5 th century, the east, west, and 

 south walks being vaulted in stone, and probably the 

 north walk also, though no evidence remains here, as 

 on the other three sides, of the wall ribs and shafts of 

 the vault. 



This cloister had nine bays on the east and west, 

 and ten on the north and south, each bay containing 

 a four-light window. All were glazed, those in the 

 west walk having the history of the foundation of the 

 church, with verses, preserved by Gunton,' below each 

 scene, while in the other three walks were the story of 

 the Old Testament (south), that of the New (east), 

 and pictures of the kings of England from Saxon 

 times (north). These windows were smashed by the 

 Puritan soldiery in 1643, and the cloister pulled down 

 a few years later, in 165 I. ' 



"^rhe chapter-house (capitulum) on the east side of 

 the cloister is not mentioned again in the records after 

 its completion by Ernulf, except that Abbot Robert, 

 1214--22, glazed a window in it 'on the prior's 

 side.' In the survey of 1539 its dimensions are given 

 as 28 yds. by 1 1 yds. It was destroyed in the time 

 of the Commonwealth, and the house built on its site 

 and now used as a school belongs to the latter part of 

 the 17th century. 



Between the chapter-house and the south transept 

 was a passage leading to the monks' cemetery, about 

 40 ft. long, and vaulted in three bays. The springers 

 of the vault on the north side and the wall face in 

 which they are set date from c. 1230. 



On the south of the chapter-house was the inner or 

 monks' parlour (locutorium), a narrow passage-room 

 opening to the cemetery on the east. Close to it, on 

 the east side of the dorter range, was the novices' 

 chapel, or chapel of the Holy Cross, entered doubt- 

 less from the ground story of the dorter range, part of 

 which, as at St. Albans, may have been used as a day- 

 room for the novices. 



The dorter range (dormitorium) has been entirely 

 destroyed, with the exception of a small piece of its 

 west wall at the south-east angle of the cloister. The 

 range was of two stories standing north and south, and 

 its dimensions are given in I 539 as 64 yds. by I 3 yds. 

 Along its west side ran a vaulted passage, called in the 

 Custuraal the passage to the hostry, the west wall of 



which still remains. The south end of the dorter may 

 have been in line with a vaulted building, probably 

 the ' little dorter ' of the survey of 1 5 39, still standing 

 at the south-west of the pass.age, but this point can not 

 be settled without excavation. Over the western of 

 the three south windows in the ground story of the 

 south transept are marks of the roof of a small build- 

 ing, probably of wood, which must have stood over the 

 cemetery passage, and has a close parallel at West- 

 minster. It implies that the dorter stopped short of 

 the transept, but in spite of this there may have been 

 a night stair from it to the church, and the plan in 

 Bridges' History seems to show a stair in the required 

 position, though no traces of it now remain. 



A dorter was built by Ernulf, 1107-14, and 

 escaped the fire two years later. Abbot Robert, 

 1214-22, glazed nine windows in the dorter, and 

 also enlarged it and divided it into separate cubicles. 

 Abbot Godfrey of Crowland, 1299-132 1, 'gave the 

 timber for the great dorter,' but it is not said whether 

 this was for a new roof or new fittings.' 



The Custumal mentions the great dorter and the 

 new dorter (the context shows that the latter is not to 

 be confused with the reredorter), and the great and 

 little dorter of the suppression survey are probably 

 identical with these. The procession on the vigils of 

 the principal feasts entered at the north end of the 

 great dorter, and went round the new dorter and then 

 round the great dorter, finishing at the prior's bed, 

 which was therefore probably at the south end of the 

 great dorter. 



Of the little dorter, if such it be, a good deal 

 remains, and the dimensions given in 1539 (33 yds. 

 by 12 yds.) agree fairly well with its width at the east 

 end, if the small vaulted passage on the north be in- 

 cluded ; its west end is destroyed, but the addition of 

 two bays to what remains would exactly give the 

 required length. It contains work of several dates, 

 the eastern part of its north wall being of the latter 

 part of the 1 2th century, and it is probable that the 

 south, east, and west walls of its two eastern bays are 

 of the same time. ' The building was of two stories, 

 vaulted beneath ; the two eastern bays of the vault 

 remaining perfect, while the north wall and springers 

 of 3j more bays exist to the west.' The vault and 

 all the remains west of the two perfect bays belong ap- 

 proximately to the second quarter of the 14th century, 

 a date which would well agree with the Custumal, 

 which calls this the new dorter. It seems that it is 

 an addition to the dorter, in which some older work 

 was included and adapted to a new use. This earlier 

 building may have been a misericord, on the analogy 

 of Westminster, where the arrangements of this part 

 of the monastery are very like those at Peterborough, 

 and it may have continued to be so used after the 

 alterations. It is to be noted that before the time of 

 Robert of Lindsey, I 2 14-22, there was a building 

 specially assigned for this purpose.'' 



In its eastern bay is a small doorway to the passage, 

 and on the south side of this and the next bay are 

 two-light windows with transoms of 14th-century 

 date. 



' Op. cit. 104.. 



^ Thorpe Hall is said to have been 

 built of its materials. 



^ Sparke, Scriptoreiy I 70. 



* The remains of a fireplace in the 

 north side of the second bay are of post- 

 suppression date. 



2 



'The length given in the survey of 1539, 

 33 yds., suggests that the western part 

 had five bays in all, as shown on the 

 plan. 



^ The misericord, also called * le seyny," 

 i.e., the room for the use of the infirm 



449 



and the minuti, is mentioned in 1431 in 

 3 way which suggests that It was entered 

 from the cloister. It may, therefore, have 

 been at that time under the great dorter, 

 as was the case in other Benedictine 

 houses, as Evesham and St. Albans 



57 



