“The view looking down either of the walks is very fine, mainly owing to the richness of the groined roof, which is the earliest example of the fan-vault. This style of vaulting is entirely peculiar to England; and Professor Willis has suggested that the school of masons who were employed in this cathedral may have originated it. The wall sides of the cloisters are panelled; and the windows, divided by a transom, have rich Perpendicular tracery. The lights above the transom were glazed. Each walk is divided into ten compartments. In the south walk are the Carrels—places for writing or study, twenty in number, formed by a series of arches, running below the main windows. In each carrel is a small and graceful window of two lights.[6] The very fine view at the angle of the south and west walks should especially be noticed. In the north walk are the lavatories, projecting into the cloister garth; these are very perfect. Under the windows is a long trough or basin into which the water flowed. The roof is groined. Opposite in the wall of the cloister, is the recess for towels, or manutergia. The windows of the east walk are filled with memorial glass by Hardman (the eighth is by Ballantyne, as is one window in the west walk).”—(R. J. K.)
A small cloister, or slype, opens from the east walk between the cathedral and the chapter-house. This is also called the Abbot’s Cloister. This is Norman in its western portion and Perpendicular beyond.[7] Above this is situated the Chapter Library, a long, dark Perpendicular room with a roof of dark oak, a large Perpendicular window east and a row of small windows on the north side.
Though the cloisters are quadrangular, the length of the four walks is not quite the same. The width (12⅛ feet) and height (18⅛ feet) are alike.
In the North Alley, the Monks’ Lavatory is
“one of the most perfect of its date. It projects 8 feet into the garth, and is entered from the cloister alley by eight tall arches with glazed traceried openings above. Internally it is 47 feet long and 6⅛ feet wide, and is lighted by eight two-light windows towards the garth and by a similar window at each end. One light of the east window has a small square opening below, perhaps for the admission of the supply pipes, for which there seems to be no other entrance either in the fan vault or the side walls. Half the width of the lavatory is taken up by a broad, flat ledge or platform against the wall, on which stood a lead cistern or laver, with a row of taps, and in front a hollow trough, originally lined with lead, at which the monks washed their hands and faces. From this the waste water ran away into a recently discovered (1889) tank in the garth.”—(H.)
From the West Alley the monks entered their great dining-hall; and at the south-west corner a vaulted passage called the Slype lies under part of the old lodging of the Abbots, now the Deanery. In this passage, a sort of outer parlour, the monks held conversation with strangers. In the South Alley the monks studied after dinner until evensong. It has ten windows of six lights and twenty recesses, or “carrels,” below the transoms.
The roof of the East Alley is a perfectly plain barrel vault without ribs. In the south-west corner we find a hollowed bracket, or cresset stone, in which a wick, floating in tallow, was kept to light the passage.
Opposite the fifth bay a doorway, containing some good Norman work, slightly restored, leads into the Chapter-House.
Originally consisting of three Norman bays, it probably, like the chapter-houses at Norwich, Reading, and Durham, terminated in a semi-circular apse. The present east end is Late Perpendicular, and makes a fourth bay. The vaulting of the later part is well groined, and the window is good. The roof of the three Norman bays is a lofty barrel vault supported by three slightly pointed arches springing from the capitals of the columns, which are curiously set back, and separate the bays.