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Monument details
| HER Number: | TR 15 NE 1234 |
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| Type of record: | Monument |
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| Name: | The Brewhouse, Christchurch Priory |
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Summary
The Priory's Brewhouse is located within the eastern section of a long rectangular range of building, with a high pitched roof, and a gatehouse on its eastern side. The passage under this gatehouse divides the building into two unequal parts. These are clearly shown on Prior Wibert's Plan of the Priory's Waterworks dated c. 1165, and are thus of Norman date.
| Grid Reference: | TR 1515 5807 |
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| Map Sheet: | TR15NE |
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| Parish: | CANTERBURY, CANTERBURY, KENT |
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Monument Types
Full description
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The Priory's Brewhouse is located within the eastern section of a long rectangular range of building, with a high pitched roof, and a gatehouse (Forrens gate) on its eastern side. The passage under this gatehouse divides the building into two unequal parts. These are clearly shown on Prior Wibert's Plan of the Priory's Waterworks dated c. 1165, and are thus of Norman date.
The western portion is labelled Bracinum, or Brewhouse; the eastern portion is labelled the 'Pistrinum', or Bakehouse. The Brewhouse section measures some 160 feet long E-W by approximately 38 feet wide N-S, it is separated by at least two internal dividing walls creating at least three separate rooms. To the exterior are a series of buttresses.
Known additions or repairs were made to the Brewhouse by Prior Eastry in 1317, which included a projecting porch and chimney to the Bakehouse. In Prior Chillenden's list, under Repairs in the Curia' are found 1390-1411 'Reparacio domus bracini', or repairs of the Brewhouse. The building was in Decorated style on the whole, but also has Perpendicular insertions and repairs.
It remained in use as the Priory's Brewhouse up until the Dissolution, when they were assigned to the Dean, and described as 'all the Brewhouse and Bakehouse, and all other houses unto the Dean's Stable, and the Gatehouse there next to his stables'. The Stables were on the site of the former Norman Granarium.
Willis, R., 1868, 'The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monastery of Christchurch in Canterbury' (Article in serial). SKE30206.
Blockley, K., Sparks, M. & Tatton-Brown, T., 1997, Canterbury Cathedral Nave, Archaeology, History and Architecture (Monograph). SKE29723.
Sources and further reading
| Cross-ref.
| Source description | | --- | Monograph: Blockley, K., Sparks, M. & Tatton-Brown, T.. 1997. Canterbury Cathedral Nave, Archaeology, History and Architecture. |
| --- | Article in serial: Willis, R.. 1868. 'The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monastery of Christchurch in Canterbury'. |
