The Architectural History of the Cathedral Church and Monastery of St Andrew at Rochester II. The Monastery

ST. ANDREW AT ROCHESTER. 3 in 868, but none of these made any addition to the site of the monastery. At the time of A-Ethelbert's foundation of the church in 604 the city was still enclosed on the south by the Roman wall,*" as it is yet on the east and north. Owing to the divergence westwards of the north and south walls, and the parallel lines of the High street and north wall, the section on which church and monastery were built was a wedgeshaped area, roughly 800 feet long, about 480 feet wide on the west, and 150 feet on the east, containing some 5 | acres.f Near the middle of the western side, and abutting upon the street, was built the church. Owing, no doubt, to the direction of the street leading from the south gate, the axis of the first church deviated southwards 27 degrees from the true east and west line, but in the case of Gundulf's church the deviation was as much as 38 degrees, so that its axis pointed nearly due south-east. This increase was partly necessitated by the position of the north tower, which was built before the church, but it was also due to a desire to avoid a too near approach to the houses that must always, as now, have fringed the main street through the city. The Priory of Rochester owes its origin, according to some authorities, to archbishop Lanfranc, but it is usually ascribed to bishop Gundulf, who, shortly after his appointment to the see in 1076-7- , displaced the secular priests who then served the church, and set up in their stead a convent of Benedictine monks. The regulars appear to have been introduced in 1082 or 1083. According to the Textus Roffensis, bishop Gundulf, besides building anew the cathedral church of St. Andrew, "also constructed all the necessary offices for monks, as far as the capacity of the site allowed." The number of the monies, we are told, was twenty-two, but at Gundulf's death in 1107-8 there were more than sixty. J * For the story of Mr. George Payne's identification of the Eoman wall, a most important discovery, see Archceologia Cantiana, XXI. 1-16. t As Leland not untruly remarks: " The Cathedral Chirch and the Palace with the other Buildings there occupiith half the Space of the Cumpace within the Wailes of Rqfecestre." The Itinerary of John Leland the Antiquary, edited by Thomas Hearne, M.A, (Oxford, 1744), vi. 9. J Textus Boffensis, f. 172; ed. Hearne, 143. B 2