Exploring Kent's Past

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Monument details

Summary

The Infirmary Cloister is shown on Prior Wibert's map of the Priory's Waterworks dated c. 1165 and as such predates this and is considered that it forms part of the original Priory built by Lanfranc in c. 1080. But is a later addition perhaps dated to Prior Ernulf's time 1096-1107.

Monument Types

• CLOISTER (Medieval to Unknown - 1096 AD?)

Full description

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The Infirmary Cloister is shown on Prior Wibert's map of the Priory's Waterworks dated c. 1165 and as such predates this and is considered that it forms part of the original Priory built by Lanfranc in c. 1080. But is a later addition perhaps dated to Prior Ernulf's time 1096-1107. It is an off-square structure measuring overall about 120 feet E-W by 70 feet N-S. being slightly wide along its northern length where it is about 130 feet long.

The Infirmary Cloister is located directly to the east of the Dormitory and to west of the Infirmary Hall. The south side of the Infirmary Cloister provides a continuation of the sheltered passage from the Great Cloister to the Infirmary Hall. The Norman drawing of this Infirmary Cloister shows it bounded on the north, south and east sides with arcading, resting on simple and numerous pillars. The remains of the eastern side of the cloister were examined and showed that the arches are plain, square-edged, of a single order, only two feet ten inches in span, and fourteen inches thick, resting on low shafts, which are alternate single and double. The capitals are of early Norman character. Some of the shafts are carved with small spiral flutes, either continuous, or alternately right and left as in the crypt. The complete eastern arcade consisted of either 12 or 13 arches. The north and south arcades are in the same form as the eastern, but the western appears to have had 18 arches. The southern arcade subsequently became partly covered by the Norman circular water tower of the Lavatory. An upper gallery over the cloister allowed the monk's access from the upper chamber in the Dormitory to the Church Choir without having to descend to the Cloister.

The erection of the Prior's Chapel in the 13th century, however, swept away the southern half of this eastern alley and half of the southern alley of the cloister.

Willis, R., 1868, 'The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monastery of Christchurch in Canterbury' (Article in serial). SKE30206.

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

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

Sources and further reading