The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

Middle Ages: churches, castles and monasteries
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flanked the cloister. In the south range, opposite the church, was normally the refectory; to the
west was the guest house or general offices and storage; to the east was the chapter house (where
the community met daily), with the dormitory of the monks or nuns placed above it on the upper
storey. Monastic churches were arranged on a cruciform ground-plan or a simple rectangle, the
latter typical of many churches of canons and nuns. The church was divided into the presbytery
in the east end, which contained the high altar; the choir, where the stalls of the monks or nuns
were located, was in the vicinity of the crossing between the transepts; and the nave was situated
to the west.
Excavation has shown that before permanent accommodation was built in stone, monasteries
were in many cases provided with temporary timber buildings, for example at Fountains, North
Yorkshire, and Sandwell, West Midlands. At Norton Priory, Cheshire, several phases of large
timber buildings were excavated to the south-west of the cloisters (Figure 13.6). The actual cloister
ranges themselves may have first been built in timber (Greene 1989). Construction of the stone
buildings generally progressed starting with the church, built from east to west. Excavation at
monasteries regularly reveals constructional evidence, including tile kilns, lime kilns and mixers,
lead came and painted glass from windows, and bell-casting pits. Evidence can also be found for
the destruction that followed the Dissolution, in particular the lead-melting pits for condensing
lead stripped from roofs.
Figure 13.6 Norton Priory, Cheshire, an Augustinian monastery founded in 1134. The plan shows the
location of the temporary timber buildings in relation to the monastic plan of the twelfth century, prior to
substantial reordering in the thirteenth century.
Source: Greene 1989, Fig. 36