PETERBOROUGH SOKE 



PETERBOROUGH 



Durham, where it was commonly used as the monks' 

 dining-room.' 



The use of the lower story of this building may be 

 explained by the entry in the chronicle ' that Abbot 

 Robert of Lindsey, 1214-22, made a larder next the 

 kitchen for the use of the cellarer. 



From the Custumal it may be gathered that the 

 frater had tables running along its north and south 

 sides, and a high table across its east end — the abbot's 

 place being at one end of the table and the prior's at 

 the other. The bell which was rung before meals, 

 etc., hung on the east wall at the prior's end of the 

 table, and on the same wall was painted a Majesty, to 

 which all bowed on leaving the frater. 



Of the east wall the lower part remains, having at 

 either end of its west 6ce the springings of an arcade 

 of nine bays of two moulded orders with nook-shafts 

 and moulded capitals and bases. The arcades are 

 gone, but the tympana at the backs of the arched 

 heads still remain, and show that at each end were 

 three bays with plain pointed arches,' and in the middle 

 three with trefoiled arches. A number of pinholes for 

 securing hangings or panelling are to be seen in the 

 tympana and the wall below them. In the north w.iU 

 a similar wall-arcade remains, originally of thirty bays. 

 It is in part blocked with masonr)-, hidden by green- 

 houses, and otherwise mutilated, but enough remains 

 to show the beauty of its details. Above the arches 

 are sunk roundles with geometrical and foliate designs. 

 At the west end of this wall is the entrance doorway 

 from the cloister, of four orders with jambshafts, the 

 inner order having a round arch, while the others are 

 pointed, the tympanum thus formed being enriched 

 with a sunk trefoil between two dragons in scrolls of 

 foliage. It is now known as Heaven's Gate, taking 

 the name from a gateway which formerly stood to the 

 south-west of the frater. The west and south walls of 

 the frater were doubtless arcaded like the others, the 

 drawing of 1 72 1 proving this as regards the former, 

 and the pulpit for the reader was no doubt in the 

 south wall. 



Towards the cloister the north wall of the frater 

 had a wall-arcade of eleven bays, with two pointed 

 arches under a containing arch in each bay. Six bays 

 of this arcade remain towards the east, and have had 

 marble shafts ; the five bays west of them, up to the 

 frater door, having been destroyed in the 1 5 th century, 

 and replaced by deeply-recessed arcades intended to 

 contain the troughs for the cloister lavatory and the 

 towel-cupboards. A marble lavatory which may have 

 been the predecessor of this was made by Abbot Robert 

 of Lindsey, 1214-22, but nothing more is known of 

 it, unless it is to be connected with a large circular 

 basin of blue marble now in the north triforium of 

 the presbyter)', belonging apparently to the early part 

 of the 13th century, and having formed part of a 

 circular lavator)' with a central pillar. It is made up 

 of fragments taken from the foundations of the Galilee 

 at the late repairs, and if broken up to form founda- 

 tions at the time of building must have been quite 

 new when so used;' but it probably belongs to a 

 later underpinning. This circular lavatory must have 

 stood in the cloister garth, on the south side, near the 

 frater door. 



The monks' kitchen adjoined the south-west angle 

 of the frater. In 1 5 39 it is said vaguely to be 25 yds. 

 long, and no other reference is made to it in the 

 records, unless it is what is called in 1629 the abbot's 

 kitchen. This is said to have been in ruins for fifty 

 years, but as it adjoined other buildings its walls were 

 to be kept and coped at the top. At the same time 

 it is noted that there was a large kitchen in use in the 

 bishop's palace. 



Robert of Lindsey made a larder for the cellarer's 

 use adjoining the kitchen, and it has already been 

 suggested that this larder was the building at the west 

 end of the frater. The abbot's kitchen, a distinct 

 building, was made by Walter of Bury St. Edmunds, 

 1233—45, ^"' nothing more is known of it. 



At the north-east end of the south wing of the 

 present palace is the massive west wall of a late 12th- 

 century building, with a blocked pointed door^vay and 

 a large buttress to the south of it. It has been vaulted, 

 as a late 13th-century vaulting shaft remains on its 

 east face south of the doorway. Against this wall on 

 the west side is Abbot Kirton's two-story building 

 known as Heaven's Gate Chamber. The wall in 

 question must belong either to the monks' kitchen or 

 to the gate, and from the comparative narrowness of 

 the doorway, and the height of the springing of the 

 vault, it is probably part of the former. 



To the west of the cloister stood a two-storj' range 

 of buildings, the ground story containing the outer 

 parlour, the cellarer's storerooms, etc., and the upper 

 the abbot's hall and part of his great chamber. The 

 abbot's house is first mentioned as existing in 11 16, 

 when it was nearly set on fire by the burning west 

 tower of the church. Abbot Martin, 1133-55, 

 rebuilt the abbot's chamber and his hall {aula ad 

 familiam), and to his time belongs the arch at the 

 north end of the west wall of the cloister, next to the 

 church, which formed the east end of the outer 

 parlour. 



West of this range lay the great court of the 

 monastery, called forum Abbathiae in the Custumal, 

 divided by a range of buildings on the north from the 

 outer or great Gallery (Galilee) court, as it afterwards 

 came to be called. 



An idea of the general arrangement of the abbot's 

 buildings and the court is best obtained by comparing 

 the references in Swapham with the surveys of 1539, 

 1 541, and 1629, and the descriptions in Gunton's 

 History. The references, omitting minor details, are 

 as follows : — 



William of Waterville, 1155-75, built a chamber, 

 a chapel, and offices in the curia, probably the inner 

 court, but it is not possible to identify the position of 

 these buildings. 



Benedict, 1177-94, who built the great church 

 usque ad frontcm, built a great hall with all its guest 

 chambers [diversorid), and began, but had not finished 

 at the time of his death, ' that magnificent work next 

 the brewhouse.' 



Robert of Lindsey, 1214-22, covered the abbot's 

 hall with lead on the side next the cloister, and set up 

 the great house over the bakery and brewhouse. He 

 also built the new inner gate and the new stable for 

 the abbot's horses. 



* It must be noted that the drawing of 

 1721 shows an archway west of the frater 

 door which may have belonged to these 

 Btairs. ^ Sparke, Scri^tore:^ loS. 



• This does not agree with the drawing 

 of 1 72 1, but the evidence can not be 

 mistaken. 



■* In this connexion it may be noted 



453 



that a small marble figure of good 15th- 

 centur>" style was found in the same way 

 at the late repairs. It is now ia tiic 

 Chapter Library in the Galilee. 



