Chapter House and dormitory facade, 12th century
/Five years ago I wrote a brief article for the Friends on the east range of the cloisters, just before cleaning, conservation and repair work got underway on these very important ruins'. Since then the majority of this work has been carried out (during the summers of 19892, 1990 and 1992), and while it was taking pare was able to study the fabric in detail. This was greatly assisted by the making o measured drawings of all this masonry (by John Atherton Bowen), and by the cleaning work of Nicholas Duran and his team of conservators', The last main cleaning and repair of the ruins was started in the spring of 1936, and it was at this time that the ground level was once again lowered (and paved in brick) to form a new east cloister walk. At the same time the chapter house doorway, and two other doorways to the south were reopened. There is an interesting photograph in the Friends' First Annual Report which shows the area just before work started A massive pair of ivy trunks is visible towards the southern end of the wall, and ivy growth is visible on many sections. Late Victorian photographs show even more ivy growth, and the outside wall of the chapter room and undereroft are completely covered in what appears to be Virginia Creeper', The lowering of the ground level probably started in February 1936 (Fig. 1), to be followed a few weeks later by the opening of the chapter house doorway and reduction of the ground level in the western area of the chapter house itself,
Work started in 1989 on the cleaning and conservation of both faces of the lower half of the west wall of the chapter house, and at the same time measured (1:20 scale) drawings were made of both faces. This is not the place for a full description of our findings, but a brief summary of the results can be given?.
It seems highly likely that the chapter house and adjoining dormitory were first built, as documented, by Bishop Ernulf (1114-11249), and that the three upper windows in the west wall date from his time. They had simple cushion capitals and roll-mouldings surrounding them (inside and out), as well as monolithic shafts (only five out of the twelve original shafts survive), which are made in two and three sections of an unusual oolitic limestone°, In between the windows are tall blind arches surrounded by a simple chevron pattern. The main walls are of Ragstone rubble-masonry with Caen stone used only for jambs, quoins, etc, in June 1137, there was a major fire which Gervase tells us not only burnt the cathedral, but also 'the whole town and the domestic buildings of the bishop and the monks'. As a result of this, much refacing of burnt masonry was no doubt required, and evidence of this is apparent in the cathedral nave and west front, as well as in the lower west wall of the chapter house. Here the decoration is much more elaborate, and of a type that is found in Canterbury and other places in Kent in the mid-twelfth century, it seems likely that all the old burnt masonry was removed, and replaced with new facing work. The Ragstone rubble core is so thick that it would have been perfectly possible to do this without demolishing the upper wall. The new face is entirely in Caen stones, except for the plinth (of Ragstone rubble). On the coursed Caen stone ashlar above the central doorway and wide flanking windows, an elaborate lattice diaper Dattern has been cut both externally and internally'*. The central doorway is flanked by scalloped capitals (with carved heads and crouching dragons above), while the windows on either side have elaborate carved Corinthian capitals, and above all of this are the worn remains of several semi-circular rows of elaborate high Romanesque decoration'S. Surmounting this on the outside of the chapter house doorway, are the now exceptionaly worn remains of a frieze of figures and dragons (Fig. 2Y. ire innermost order is of chevron decoration on great through-stones, and these large blocks seem to have been removed from the flanking windows in the late eighteenth century, when they and the central doorway were blocked up', All the monolithic shafts in this lower work have been removed, except for the shattered remains of one octagonal Tournai marble shaft on the south side of the chapter house doorway 7.
A second major fire took place on 11th April, 1179, and it must be this fire that has left clear traces of burning on the masonry'8. No doubt the combustion of the timber cloister and chapter house roofs caused most damage in this area.
The only later medieval work visible in the west wall of the chapter house is part of a base in the south-west corner, dating from the fourteenth century. This was for the bridge that was built across the west side below the upper windows. It acted as a night passage from the dormitory to the choir. At probably the same time, the back faces of the plinth and bases for the main doorway into the chapter house were cut back and huge iron hinge-pins were inserted for a new pair of doors. The chapter house was probably also reroofed at this time as worn corbels for wall-posts can still be seen in the side walls.
The cathedral priory was dissolved in April 1540, and during the later part of that year, and in the spring of 1541, the east range was converted into the King's lodgings for a new royal palace. It was probably at this time that the upper windows in the chapter house had their sills cut away in the centre (presumably to
'make them into doorways). At the same time, large Ragstone corbels were inserted into the external wall just below the windows, where the top of the old cloister roof had been. They are held in place by small areas of Tudor brickwork, and were almost certainly put there to support a new upper passageway for the King's lodgings above the old cloister east walk.
During the summer of 1990, the decorated doorway into the monks' dormitory was carefully cleaned and conserved. This fine doorway immediately adjoins the chapter house masonry just described (and is coursed with it) so that it too was therefore refaced in the mid-twelfth century. It too has worn flanking Tournai marble shafts (Fig. 3), and above the horizontal lintel of the doorway is the well-known (but now terriblv worn) tympanum scene of Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac?. The central part of this scene was bulging out and the conservators found that in the wall behind it was a vertical wrought iron bar that was rusting and causing the damage. This bar, which was set in lead at either end, clearly dates from the mid-twelfth century, and as such is a uniquely early piece of structural metalwork?'. It was made in two main vertical pieces that are scarfed together and have smaller horizontal ties through them into the masonry (Fig. 4). The top piece was put into the earlier core above the top of the arch and attached to it was a second much longer piece which ran down to the central lintel-stone below. In between were two 'skins of masonry on either side of the metal bar. The outer skin was the tympanum proper on which was carved the reliefs of the sacrifice of isaac. The inner skin was made of beautifully cut rectangular blocks of tula Unfortunately the twelfth century bar had to be removed because of the damage the rust was doing, and to achieve this, the tufa block wall at the back was taken down (after the stones had been numbered up). A drawn record was made of the ironwork in situ by John Bowen, before the conservators carefully took it out, put in modern (non-ferrous) ties and rebuilt the inner tufa block wall (Fig. 4). This was a very delicate job, and tribute should be paid to Nick Duran and his team. The ironwork is now stored in the cathedral lapidarium, but it is possible to see the inner tufa block-wall and the slot for the iron bar by looking up from the space inside the dormitory doorway.
During 1991, the west front of the cathedral was cleaned and repaired, so the next main stage of cleaning and repair in the cloister area was postponed until 1992.
Then during the summer of that year, the whole of the rest of the lower wall in the east range was cleaned and conserved?. This was originally the west wall of the monks' dormitory which was built in Bishop Ernulf's time (i.e. c. 1120) for over sixty monks?3, This great building, which was about 42 feet wide internally, ran for at least 130 feet south from the chapter house?. Its southern end, which was probably adjoined by the reredorter on the east, is probably now under the roadway just south of'Easter Garth'25, In the early 1880s, W. H. (later Sir Wiliam) St. John Hope excavated various areas in the northern part of the domitory undercroft, and was able to show that, as usual, the dormitory was at first floor level above a groin-vaulted undercroft26. The surviving fragment of the west wall of the dormitory that was conserved in 1992 was only the undercroft wall, and in it there had once been no less than five doorways (Fig. 5). The northernmost of these, which is that described above, must have lead to a staircase up to the dormitory itself on the principal floor. Immediately south of this doorway, a continuous line of blind arcading starts, and it is probable that from this point southwards the external masonry, including the blind arcade and associated doorways and windows (see below), all dates from the original (C. 1120) construction. Only the lower wall of the chapter house and the masonry extending to and including the main dormitory doorway were refaced in the mid-twelfth century.
The next two doorways to the south were reopened in 1936, and brick steps were put in, which lead up to Ladies' and Gentlemen's lavatories. The northernmost of these had fine, mostly 'chip-carved', decoration over it, which is earlier in style than much of that used in the principal dormitory doorway. It does, however, have the remains of one Tournai marble shaft on its north side. This doorway probably lead into a passage which ran straight through the undercroft, and out the other side to the buildings of the Infirmary. At the southern end of the wall is another, similar doorway, that is still blocked up28. This doorway, however, has no carved decoration over it, and its inner arch has been removed. Behind the lower jambs to the doorway, still visible are the iron hinge-pins, showing that it once contained a pair of wooden doors. This doorway may have lead into the 'Warming House' of the priory.
In between these two original doorways, there are now two further doorways, which have brick pilasters for their northern jambs. The southern of these two doorways, both of which are clearly later in date, is still blocked, and the fill is largely of tufa, which stands out against the Ragstone rubble used in the original walls. The brickwork was mostly rebuilt in 1936, but it seems very likely that it was first put in when Henry VIlI was having the range converted into his own new lodgings (c. 1540-1). As with the chapter house, there is also an inserted row of Ragstone corbels set in brickwork, at the level of the old roofline, which must be forthe floor put in above the cloister walk for the palace. There is also, however, a lower row of regularly spaced smaller Ragstone corbels, which have been cut into the top of the Caen stone ashlar masonry above the blind arcading. These may have been for the wall-posts of a later medieval roofing in the cloister. The top part of the wall, and its capping, was built much more recently, presumably in the eighteenth or nineteenth century (with repairs in 1936).
In the original wall, between the two original doorways mentioned above, enough remains of the blind arcading to allow us to reconstruct its original appearance. It contained alternating shafts of Onyx marble (round) and Caen stone (Octagonal), which were held in place by early twelfth century scalloped capitals and bases29.
There were also three regularly spaced windows between the two doorways, which are marked by slightly higher arches in the top of the blind arcading. Two of the windows were replaced by the doorways mentioned above, while the third (the most southerly) is blocked up. Its form can, however, just be made out within the blind-arcading. The chamfered southern jamb is still visible, as well as the returns of the chamfer at the bottom (sill level). The later fill contains tufa at the bottom, and some reused Caen stone blocks. There was no doubt a large internal splay in the thickness of the wall.
Despite all the destruction of monastic buildings that took place at Rochester after the dissolution, there remain these important Romanesque buildings around the great cloister, which are a memorial to the first (and most important) century of Benedictine monasticism at the cathedral. It is nice to see once again that they are being cared for and appreciated. We now need to turn to the cleaning and conservation of the few, but very important, surviving medieval remains in the south and west ranges30,
Tim Tatton-Brown
Tim Tatton-Brown, 'The east range of the cloisters', Friends of Rochester Cathedral: Report for 1988, pp.4-8.
The work on the chapter house actually took place from July to December 1989, see Duran below.
N. Duran, 'Conservation of the east range of the Cloisters - The Romanesque Chapter House. 'Friends of Rochester Cathedral: Report for 1989/90, p.23.
Friends of Rochester Cathedral: First Annual Report (February 1936) opposite p.9. See also, in the same report, S. W. Wheatley, 'The cloister ruins of St. Andrew's Priory', pp. 15-18.
G. H. Palmer, The Cathedral Church of Rochester (Bells Cathedral Series 1899), pp.56-7,
The exact order of the work is not given in the Second Annual Report (Feb. 1937), but a report from The Times (April 1936) describes excavations in the western part of the chapter house.
A full report, with all the drawings, will be published in Archaeologia Cantiana, the journal of the Kent Archaeological Society, who kindly provided grants for the work.
For a fuller discussion see note 1 above.
A series of round dowel holes were found in the sides of these windows, suggesting that they had wooden frames 1936.
Gervase of Canterbury, Opera Historica (ed. W. Stubbs), 2 vols. (Rolls series 73, 1879-80) 1, p. 100.
D. Kahn. Canterbury Cathedral and its Romanesque Sculpture (1991).
However the Caen stone is of two varieties, a laminated or banded form being mixed in with the plain 'ordinary' type.
See figure on p.6 in note 1. This has wrongly been called 'Ernulphian decoration'.
See fig. 113 in D. Kahn (note 12 above), 73.
They are shown in engravings dated 1769 of the chapter house west wall and chapter house doorway top in J. Thorpe, Custumale Roffense (1788) plate xxxviii, p. 161. The doorway and flanking windows are shown unblocked in another engraving, ibid. plate xxxvii, p. 161. See also plate xxxii, p. 151.
Other fragmentary Tournai marble shafts still exist further to the south. Tournai marble is only used here in the mid-twelfth century. It comes from near Tournai in Belgium.
Gervase (see note 11) p.292 says that the church and all its offices were reduced to cinders.
H. M. Colvin (ed.), The History of the King's Works Vol. V, part II (1982), pp. 234-7.
See photos in note 1, pp.7-8. This shows the doorway before cleaning.
This is perhaps the earliest form of medieval iron reinforcement yet recorded in Britain. See R. P. Wilcox, Timber and iron Reinforcement in Early Buildings (1981), 104. The first major use of iron ties is in William of Sens' choir at Canterbury in c. 1176.
M. Caroe, 'From the Cathedral Surveyor', Friends of Rochester Cathedral: Report for 1992/3, pp. 3-4.
Textus Roffensis, fo. 172 tells us that when Gundulf founded his new monastery at Rochester in 1083 there
were about twenty-two monks, but that at the time of his death, in 1108, there were more than sixt monks.
It can be compared with the chapter house at St. Augustine's in Canterbury, which had internal dimensions of c. 44 feet by 200 feet. Canterbury Cathedral Priory had a much larger dormitory (for about 150 monks) with internal dimensions of c. 78 by 150 feet. See T. Tatton-Brown, Three great Benedictine houses in Kent: their buildings and topography', Arch. Cant. 100 (1984), pp. 171-188.
The dormitory certainly extended well beyond the Roman city wall, and its southern section was east of the refectory.
W. H. St. John Hope, The architectural history of the cathedral church and monastery of St. Andrew at Rochester, 2 - the monastery', Arch. Cant. 24 (1900), pp. 1-85, est. pp.41-6.
This Tournai marble shaft, like the two in situ Onyx marble shafts further south, may have been inserted at a later, mid-twelfth century, date.
This is also probably a late eighteenth century blocking, because it is noticeable that the blocking only extended down to the old, much higher, ground-level. It is now held in place by a 1936 brick pier.
These are now mostly very worn. Some copper ties were put in, in 1936, to hold some of the shafts, capitals and bases.
See the important article by Philip McAlear on The west range of the cloister' in last year's Friends' Report for 1992/3, pp. 13-25.
The Friends of Rochester Cathedral were founded to help finance the maintenance of the fabric and grounds. The Friends’ annual reports have become a trove of articles on the fabric and history of the cathedral.
Piecing together the thousands of architectural components and evidence from excavations and other sources informing the architectural history of the site.
