The Three Choirs: A Handbook to the Cathedrals of Gloucester, Hereford, and Worcester / A Complete Description of the Buildings, a History of Each Diocese and Biographical Notices of the Bishops

by R. J. King

XX. Although the cloisters are not in themselves of any unusual interest, they afford one of the best illustrations remaining in England of the manner in which the chief monastic buildings were grouped about them. On the east side is a passage formerly leading to the prior’s house, and beyond it the chapter-house. On the south side is the refectory, now used as a school-room. On the west side, close to the lavatory in the wall, is the entrance to the dormitory, which has itself been destroyed; and beyond again is a narrow passage (in which are staircases communicating with the triforium of the nave, and with the upper part of the dormitory) by which the west front of the church was approached from the cloisters.

The slype, or arched passage in the east walk, is Norman, (with some details, on the north side, of very early character,) and separates the chapter-house from the south wall of the great transept. Between the entrance to this passage and the chapter-house are two recesses in the wall, which may be compared with those in a similar position at Norwich; (see the Handbook for that Cathedral). Their original use is unknown.

The chapter-house [Plate III.] is circular within, (as it was without until the Perpendicular casing was added,) but is divided into ten bays by vaulting-ribs which spring from a central column, and from shafts at the sides. Without, the building is decagonal, with a buttress between each bay. The lower part of the chapter-house, the central column, and the vaulting, are transition Norman, of nearly the same date as the two western bays of the nave. Early in the sixteenth century, however, a Perpendicular window was inserted in the upper part of each bay, and the exterior of the building was entirely cased with Perpendicular masonry. The doorway

THE CHAPTER-HOUSE.

opening from the cloisters is Perpendicular. A plain circular arcade, slightly recessed, runs round the interior, above a stone bench. A second arcade, of interlacing arches, covers the upper part of the wall, and is surmounted by a stringcourse with the billet-moulding, the whole being in alternate courses of grey and white stone. Above this are the Perpendicular windows. The chapter-house has shared in the late restoration.

XXI. At the end of the east walk of the cloisters is a passage under the refectory, to the Close beyond. The refectory (120 ft. long) extends the whole length of the south walk. There is an entrance to it near the south-west end. The lower part, or crypt, is early Norman; the room above, a long parallelogram, is Decorated, of the reign of Edward III. It is now used as the school-room of the “King’s school,” founded by Henry VIII. after the dissolution of the priory.

In the west walk is the lavatory (Perpendicular), already mentioned, and the entrance (Perpendicular) to the dormitory; this, like the refectory, was a long parallelogram. The foundations of the walls have been traced, and portions of a row of columns (Perpendicular) which ran down the centre of the undercroft.

At the north-west angle of the cloister is the monks entrance to the cathedral. The cloister terminates nearly in a line with the third bay of the nave. Parallel with the last two, or transition Norman bays, is a narrow arched and vaulted passage, also transition Norman, of very good character, with a doorway of the same date at the western end. On the south side of this passage there is a staircase which led to the dormitory, and at the north-west angle one which leads to the triforium of the south aisle of the nave.