English Monasteries

by A. Hamilton Thompson

Three books of recent times are of the highest importance to students of monastic history, viz. (1) J. W. Clark's Observances of Barnwell, already mentioned; (2) Inventories of Christ Church, Canterbury, ed. W. H. St John Hope and J. Wickham Legg, 1902; (3) The Rites of Durham, ed. J. T. Fowler, 1903 (Surt. Soc.), the notes to which are a mine of information as to monastic customs, ritual, etc.

D. English Monasteries: Architecture and Plan. There is a lack of general treatises on this subject; but the account of monastic architecture by C. Enlart, Manuel d'Archéologie française, Paris, 1904, II, 1-57, applies, mutatis mutandis, to English monasteries, and contains a general bibliography.

The foundation of the study of the Benedictine plan was laid down by Professor Willis in his articles on Worcester Cathedral and Monastery (Archaeol. Journal, vol. XX), and in The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury, 1869. D. J. Stewart's Architectural History of Ely Cathedral, 1868, is another remarkable work of the same period. Other important works are J. T. Micklethwaite's Notes on the Abbey buildings of Westminster (Archaeol. Journal, vols. XXXIII, LI), W. H. St John Hope's Notes on the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter at Gloucester (Ibid. vol. LIV) and Architectural History of the Cathedral Church and Monastery of St Andrew at Rochester (reprinted from Archaeol. Cantiana, 1900), the accounts of Peterborough abbey by C. R. Peers (Vict. Co. Hist. Northants, vol. II), of St Albans abbey by C. R. Peers and W. Page (Ibid. Herts, vol. II) and of Winchester cathedral priory by C. R. Peers and H. Brakspear (Ibid. Hants, vol. V), and W. H. Knowles' Tynemouth Priory (Archaeol. Journal, vol. LXVII). F. Bond's Westminster Abbey, 1909, is an admirably written and well illustrated volume.

The Carthusian plan is treated by Mr Hope in Mount Grace Priory (Yorks. Archaeol. Journal, vol. XVIII, with historical articles by H. V. le Bas and W. Brown) and in The London Charterhouse and its old water supply (Archaeologia, vol. LVIII).

The peculiarities of the Cistercian order have received much attention: see E. Sharpe, Architecture of the Cistercians (Journal R.I.B.A., 1870-1, pp. 189-210), and J. T. Micklethwaite, Of the Cistercian plan (Yorks. Archaeol. Journal, vol. VII). The chief monograph on the Cistercian plan is W. H. St John Hope's Fountains Abbey (Yorks. Archaeol. Journal, vol. XV, reprinted separately, 1900), and to the same writer's Kirkstall Abbey (Thoresby Soc. Publications, vol. XVI) is added an essay by J. Bilson on The Architecture of the Cistercians, reprinted, with some alterations, in Archaeol. Journal, vol. LXVI. It may be noted that Mr Hope, among other discoveries, established for the first time in his Fountains Abbey the use of the Cistercian nave as the quire of the conversi, the arrangement of the Cistercian kitchen, and the fact of the disappearance of the conversi from Cistercian houses after the middle of the fourteenth century. Mr Hope has further discussed Cistercian arrangements in The Abbey of St Mary in Furness (Cumb. and Westm. Antiq. and Archaeol. Soc. Trans., vol. XVI, reprinted 1902), and with H. Brakspear in Beaulieu Abbey (Archaeol. Journal, vol. LXIII) and Jervaulx Abbey (Yorks. Archaeol. Journal, vol. XXI). Mr Brakspear's monographs include On the first Church at Furness (Lanc. and Chesh. Antiq. Soc. Trans., vol. XVIII), The Church of Hayles Abbey (Archaeol. Journal, vol. LVIII; see also Bristol and Glouc. Archaeol. Soc. Trans., vol. XXIV), Pipewell Abbey (Assoc. Archit. Soc. Reports, vol. XXX), Stanley Abbey (Wilts. Archaeol. Journal, vol. XXXV), and Waverley Abbey (Surrey Archaeol. Soc., 1905). See also R. W. Paul, The Church and Monastery of Abbey Dore (Bristol and Glouc. Archaeol. Soc. Trans., vol. XXVII).

For Cluniac plans see Mr Hope's Architectural History of the Priory of St Pancras at Lewes (Archaeol. Journal, vol. XLI; see also Sussex Archaeol. Collections, vols. XXXIV, XLIX) and Castleacre Priory (Norfolk Archaeologia, vol. XII).

The chief monographs on houses of Augustinian canons are Mr Hope's Repton Priory (Derby Archaeol. Soc. Trans., vols. VI, VII; Archaeol. Journal, vol. XLI), Messrs Hope and Brakspear's Haughmond Abbey (Archaeol. Journal, vol. LXVI), and R. W. Paul's Plan of the Church and Monastery of St Augustine, Bristol (Archaeologia, vol. LXIII). See also J. W. Clark, Observances of Barnwell, ut sup., C. C. Hodges, Hexham Abbey (sic), 1888, and the learned series of articles by J. F. Hodgson on the plans of Augustinian churches (Archaeol. Journal, vols. XLI-XLIII). Mr Brakspear has described two houses of Augustinian canonesses, viz., Burnham Abbey (Ibid., vol. LX; see Bucks. Archit. and Archaeol. Soc. Records, vol. VIII) and Lacock Abbey (Archaeologia, vol. LVII; see also Wilts. Archaeol. Journal, vol. XXXI).

The Gilbertine plan is elucidated by Mr Hope in The Gilbertine Priory of Watton (Archaeol. Journal, vol. LVIII).

Mr Hope is further responsible for a series of articles upon various Premonstratensian abbeys, viz. Alnwick (Archaeol. Journal, vol. XLIV; see also Archaeologia Aeliana, vol. XIII), Dale (Derby Archaeol. Soc. Trans., vols. I, II), St Agatha's (Yorks. Archaeol. Journal, vol. X), St Radegund's (Archaeol. Cantiana, vol. XIV), Shap (Cumb. and Westm. Antiq. and Archaeol. Soc. Trans., vol. X) and West Langdon (Archaeol. Cantiana, vol. XV). See also J. F. Hodgson, Eggleston Abbey (Yorks. Archaeol. Journal, vol. XVIII).