The next bay contains traces of a doorway into the cloister-garth that has been blocked.
The Monks' Lavatory takes up the next four bays. As Mr Hope says, "it is one of the most perfect of its date that have been preserved. 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 6½ 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." (Hope.)
A plan of this tank is here shown by permission of Mr Waller. It seems to have had a sluice at the west end in order to dam up the water if required in greater volume for flushing the drain.
Opposite the lavatory is a groined almery or recess in which the monks kept their towels. The hooks and indications of doors to this recess are still there. There are traces, too, of screens or partitions in the lavatory arches.
To the west of the lavatory is a "curious arrangement. It consists of a large opening in the lower part of the window, occupying the space of two lights, with a separate chase in the head carried up vertically on the outside. It had a transom at half its height, now broken away, as is also the sill." (Hope.)
It is possible, as suggested by Mr J. W. Clark, F.S.A., that this chase was lined with wood, and was the means by which a bell rope passed out to ring the bell which summoned the monks to meals.
The North Alley.—The windows in this alley as far as the Monks' Lavatory have been filled recently, 1896-97, at the expense of Baron de Ferrières of Cheltenham.
There are twenty-seven lights in all, and they constitute the lower part of five windows, a doorway taking the space of three lights. The eighth contains a mitre and a crozier, an initial E and the date 1022. This window is an anachronism, as Edric was not a mitred abbot. Abbot Froucester was the first to wear a mitre, in 1381.