A new survey of the buildings within the precincts of Canterbury Cathedral
A new survey of the buildings within the precincts of Canterbury Cathedral
By Tim Tatton-Brown, B.A.
The seventh volume of Archaeologia Cantiana (published in 1868) is one of the most important and sought after volumes in the whole series. This is because most of the volume contains Professor Robert Willis's great study of "The Architectural History of the Conventual Buildings of the Monastery of Christ Church in Canterbury". Since then, surprisingly, very little study of the Precincts' buildings, as opposed to the cathedral, has taken place. This is particularly strange because Canterbury had, as well as its magnificent Cathedral and Archbishop's Palace, two of the largest and most important Benedictine Monasteries in Britain. As well as this, the buildings of Christ Church (i.e. the Cathedral) Priory are often well documented and, most remarkable of all, many of them still survive to this day, having been converted after 1541 into buildings for "The New Foundation".
In 1977 the Canterbury Archaeological Trust started a series of rescue excavations within the Precincts and it was soon clear that a much more detailed study of the surviving buildings was urgently needed, particularly in the Linacre Garden area where the King's School proposed to put up a large new boarding house. In the event three large (Norman Staircase 1977, Linacre Garden 1978-9 and Mint Yard 1979-80) and four small excavations (St Gabriel's Chapel 1978-80, Western Crypt 1979, Archbishop's Palace 1982, and Lift Site 1982) were carried out with grants from the King's School and Dean and Chapter, and interim reports on all these excavations have been published in Arch.Cant. over the last six years.
While the excavations were being carried out detailed studies were made of the surrounding buildings (North Hall (Aula Nova), Meister Omers and the Almonry Chapel), and a full set of measured drawings were made of each by John Bowen; the drawings of the Almonry Chapel (demolished c.1860) were in fact made using the excavated plan and a series of early engravings and photographs. This work was supplemented by detailed documentary studies of the buildings carried out by Margaret Sparks, Honorary Historian to the Trust, and by a study of the surviving Romanesque sculpture on the Aula Nova carried out by Deborah Kahn. A little bit later we were asked by the Dean and Chapter to make measured drawings of the Infirmary Chapel ruins (in advance of restoration work) and here too Deborah Kahn has been looking at the very worn remains of the sculpture on the fine Romanesque capitals.
In 1982, with a grant from the "Friends of Canterbury Cathedral", we expanded our work and started a complete survey of all the ancient buildings of the Precincts. To date we have examined most of the major groups of buildings and provisional plans (drawn at a 1:500 scale and based on the 1873 Ordnance Survey maps) of both the medieval (Christ Church Priory) and post-medieval (New Foundation) buildings have been made. In order to understand the medieval buildings, one has to start with the more recent history of the buildings and work backwards, the process is in fact very similar to excavation.
The Deanery, for example, had much of its western wall reconstructed after war-time bombing. The internal decorations, however, were last redone on a large scale by Deans Percy and Alford in the nineteenth century. The main roof and western gables go back to Dean Goodwyn's time (1570s) while the south-west tower was built by Prior Selling (1473-5). At the north end of the Deanery is a fine first-floor hall with a crown-post roof built in Prior Chillenden's time (c.1400). The east wall here, however, has thirteenth century windows in it. Finally, the main shell of the southern part of the Deanery turns out, almost certainly, to be the early twelfth century monastic bath house. To understand this complicated sequence fully, one has not only to examine the building itself in great detail, but also to study all surviving documents and all early photographs, drawings, engravings, maps, etc., and as the Precincts are very well documented there is a great deal of this material.
Although this work is not yet finished and we cannot yet give a final tally, we have already found many more medieval roofs than had ever been expected. For example, there are the remains of an early thirteenth century secret notched-lap jointed roof over the Larder (the eastern part was sadly destroyed in 1940), a c.1275 king-strut and scissor-braced roof over the Table Hall (Choir House now), a truly magnificent early fifteenth century roof over "Meister Omers" as well as many other thirteenth to fifteenth century roofs.
When the work is complete (which should be very soon now) we will have one of the most complete plans of a Benedictine priory in Britain and this will initially be published in The Archaeology of Canterbury volumes III and IV. When this is achieved, we hope it will be a worthy successor to Arch.Cant. VII.
This article constitutes an introduction to the subject, the results of which will be more fully discussed in the KAS, AGM afternoon Lecture on Saturday the 19th May. -Ed.