CITY OF DURHAM 



This doorway appears to have replaced one 

 contemporary with the earlier buildings, for the 

 passage it leads to has at the end a round-headed 

 window which may have been the arch of the 

 doorway to the cemetery. The passage now 

 communicates by a stair with the Deanery. 



ThtSUB-VJULT OF THE FIRST DORTER, 

 now a cellar under the entrance-hall of the 

 Deanery, lies on the east side of the passage from 

 the cloister to the outer court, from which it was 

 entered by a doorway now blocked. It is 38 ft. 

 long from north to south, and 23 ft. wide, and is 

 divided into two aisles by an arcade of four 

 semicircular arches supported on short square 

 piers. The walls are quite plain, and each aisle 

 is covered by a barrel vault.^^ The arches are 

 now closed with masonry and cross walls have 

 been built to form cellars. 



The contemporary passage between this 

 sub-vault and that of the monks' frater in the 

 south range has a wall arcade of low round- 

 headed arches on each side, but the archway 

 from the cloister is of 15th-century date, with 

 a continuous hollow- chamfered moulding and 

 label, while at the south end to the outer court 

 the entrance is modern. The level of the passage 

 floor is two steps below that of the cloister. 



A doorway in the west wall of the passage 

 opens into the FRATER SUB-VAULT. This 

 begins at the east end with a narrow chamber 

 running north and south the full width of the 

 range, and covered by a plain barrel vault ; 

 from this a round-arched opening leads to the 

 main apartment (50 ft. by 32 ft.) running east 

 and west, which is divided into three aisles by 

 two rows of short, massive, square piers, four 

 in each row, supporting a groined vault of the 

 simplest form, without ribs or transverse arches. 

 The height to the crown of the vault is only 

 7 ft. 6 in. The piers have plain abaci chamfered 

 on the lower edge and there are pilasters of the 

 same type along the side walls. ^* To the west 

 of the main apartment, and opening from it, 

 are two long narrow chambers like that at the 

 east end, covered by barrel vaults, and beyond 

 these again a third of less length. The whole of 

 the sub- vault was lighted from the south by 

 small round-headed windows, five in the main 

 area and one in each of the narrow chambers, 

 now blocked by the modern passage from the 

 Deanery to the great kitchen. The extent of 

 VValcher's work is marked by the thick wall west 

 of the third chamber, which is now pierced by a 

 doorway to the later buildings erected against 

 it. The whole of the north wall on the cloister 



'* Canon Fowler was of opinion that this sub-vault 

 was the original common-room of the monks. Its 

 position favours the view, but the entire absence of 

 windows makes it doubtful. Notes in Rites, 265. 



9* The piers are 2 ft. 6 in. square, and the width of 

 the aisles 7 ft. 6 in. Each bay is a square of 7 ft. 6 in. 



side was refaced by Dean Sudbury and all traces 

 of ancient work obliterated, but a bonding mark 

 west of the library doorway indicates its term. 



The whole of the upper story of the south 

 range having been rebuilt, no part of the arrange- 

 ments of the MONKS' FRATER or REFEC- 

 TORT as set out in Ritrs^'' can now be seen 

 above the sub-vault. The Frater is described 

 as having been ' a fair large hall finely wains- 

 cotted on the north and south side,' and was 

 entered at the west end from the cloister by a 

 doorway and staircase in the same position as the 

 existing library doorway and stair. It was an 

 aisleless hall about 106 ft. long'' by 32 ft. in 

 width, with timber roof, and the high table at 

 the east end. The screens, or kitchen passage, 

 were at the west, and adjoining them a pantry 

 above the cellar known as the Covey, which 

 abutted Walcher's basement on the west. Over 

 the pantry, the roof of which was on a much 

 lower level than that of the hall, there was a 

 room known as the Loft, used in later days for 

 the daily meals of the monks,'' who used the 

 frater only on certain festivals, leaving it on 

 ordinary days to the novices.'" At the west 

 end of the hall was a stone bench from the 

 cellar door to the pantry door,*' and above the 

 bench was ' wainscot work two yards and a half 

 in height, finely carved and set with embroidered 



3'^tto, 80-82. 



'* It extended eastward over the passage to the 

 cloister. 



'' ' And also there was a door in the west end of the 

 frater within the frater house door where the old 

 monkes or convent went in, and so up a greese with 

 an iron rail to hold them by, that went up into a loft 

 (which was at the west end of the frater house) 

 wherein the said convent and monks did all dine and 

 sup together, the sub-prior did always sitt at the upper 

 end of the table as chief ; and at the greese foot 

 there was another door that went into the great 

 cellar or buttery, where all the drink did stand that 

 did serve the Prior and all the whole convent of monks, 

 having their meal served to them in at a dresser 

 window from the great kitchen through the Frater 

 House into a loft above the cellar ' ; RiUs, 87. 

 This, of course, describes the order and arrangement 

 in the l6th century. It cannot now be seen how the 

 monks went up from the frater house door into the 

 loft, as the steps are gone ; ibid. Fowler's notes in 

 RiUs, 269. 



*" ' Within the Frater House the prior and the whole 

 convent of the monks held their great feast of St. 

 Cuthbert's day in Lent . . . Also in the east end 

 of the frater house stoode a fair table with a decent 

 skrene of wainscott over it, being keapt all the rest 

 of the yeare for the master of the no\ices and the 

 novices to dyn and sup in ' ; Rites, 32. 



*i ' A fair long bench of hewn stone in mason work 

 to sitt on which is from the sellar door to the pantry 

 or covey door ' ; ibid. 80. The cellar door and the 

 covey door are still to be seen blocked up in the cellar 

 and pantry, but not in the library where they are 

 concealed by wainscot ; ibid. Fowlers notes, 258. 



127 



