492 Malmesbury Abbey. 



Abbafc William of Colerne made three ovens next the convent 

 kitchen, probably for making pastry, as he had already made the 

 bakehouse anew. 1 



Nothing has been found to indicate if there was a range of 

 buildings along the west side of the cloister. This occurred at 

 Christ Church, Canterbury, Norwich, and Bardney, but was absent 

 at Westminster, St. Augustine's, Canterbury, and Gloucester. 



Part of one of the numerous buildings which stood to the west 

 of the cloister remains incorporated with the Bell Hotel. In its 

 north wall is a thirteenth century window of two lights with 

 shafted jambs. On the first floor is a fine room having a ceiling 

 of the fifteenth century formed of deeply moulded beams, and in 

 the north-west angle of the room is an arched doorway. There is 

 no means of identifying this building with certainty, but it was 

 possibly one of the guest-houses. 



Eastward of the site of the dorter is the present " Abbey House." 

 which for the most part is " the new dwelling house ... of 

 about Edw. 6th architecture," 2 but under the northern side is a 

 sub vault, of the late thirteenth century, placed east and west. 

 This was divided into two chambers, and had a row of columns 

 down the middle. 



The western chamber is 39 ft. long by 23J ft. wide, and is of four 

 bays. The central columns and the vaulting have been destroyed, 

 but the springers supported on moulded corbels and the wall ribs 

 remain. The north, west, and a bay and a half of the south walls 

 remain. The first has in each bay a tall lancet having the internal 

 splays of rounded form on plan, presumably to take window seats- 

 The west end and the remaining part of the south side are blank, 

 and there is no indication of how the chamber was gained. Ex- 

 ternally on the north side were buttresses at either end and one in 

 the middle of its length, but all except that at the west end have 

 been chopped off lineable with the wall. The stones of their re- 

 entering angles alone indicate their existence. 



The eastern chamber is 29£ ft. in length, and of the same width 



1 See Appendix I. 

 1 Wiltshire Collections, p. 259. 



