Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The Chapter House was a place where the monks met everyday to conduct the business of the monastery. Here major items of business were discussed.

Monument Types

• CHAPTER HOUSE (Now, Medieval to Unknown - 1304 AD?)

Full description

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The Chapter House was a place where the monks met everyday to conduct the business of the monastery. Here major items of business were discussed.

There was a Chapter House here in Norman times, though it must have been somewhat smaller than the current building. The Chapter House was re-built, probably re-using Lanfranc's walling, and made longer, by Prior Eastry in 1304. It was given end gables, a new roof of Irish bog-oak and new windows by Prior Chillenden a century later in c. 1400. The vastly lofty, oblong interior measures some 90 feet by 35 feet and is thus very large for this class of building. It is impressive because its majestic proportions are left to speak for themselves. There is no vestible, so the wall-shafts divide the room into four equal bays. A double stone seat runs around all four walls. The screens are Prior Eastry's work with the Priors throne in the centre, sheltered beneath a canted canopy gabled in three directions, with crockets and pinnacles.

Three buttresses were added to the east end of the Chapter House sometime between 1377 and 1499. One to the north-east corner and two to the south-east corner.

After the Reformation Sunday sermons were given here for the Puritans, giving the place the name of the Sermon House. Some of the trials for heresy in the reign of Mary were conducted here.

By 1845 the Chapter House was reported as being in disorder, damp and littered and looked as if it were of no use in the modern economy of the cathedral. Things clearly improved for by 1897 Edward Prince of Wales and his wife Princess Alxendra were visitors to the Chapter House, which had no doubt been restored to some of its former glory by then.

Three buttresses were added to the east end of the Chapter House sometime between 1377 and 1499. One to the north-east corner and two to the south-east corner.

Willett, C., 1960, Canterbury Cathedral A Pictorial Guide (Monograph). SKE29722.

John Newman, 1969, The Buildings of England: North East and East Kent (Monograph). SKE7874.

Ingram Hill, D., 1976, Christ's Glorious Church, The Story of Canterbury Cathedral (Monograph). SKE30200.

Blockley, K., Sparks, M. & Tatton-Brown, T., 1997, Canterbury Cathedral Nave, Archaeology, History and Architecture (Monograph). SKE29723.

Sources and further reading