Archaeologia Cantiana Vol. 7 1868 THE ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OP THE CONVEN- TUAL BUILDINGS OF THE MONASTERY OF CHRIST CHURCH IN CANTERBURY, Considered in relation to the Monastic Life and Rules, and drawn ivp from personal surveys and original documentary research. BY THE BEV. ROBERT WILLIS, M.A., P.E.S., ETC. ETC., JAOKSONTA.N PEOFBSSOE OP THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBEIDGE. IN the first meeting of the British Archeeological Asso- ciation at Canterbury in 1844, I had the pleasure of reading a translation of Gervase, illustrated by reference to the actual buildings of the Cathedral, which was printed in a separate volume in the succeeding year. I then undertook the investigation of the conventual buildings, which was so far completed in 1847 that I -was enabled to communicate the results, in the form of a lecture to the Archaeological Institute, at their monthly meeting on the 5th of March of that year, of which a report will be found in the fourth volume of the Archseological Journal, p. 160. It was afterwards read to the Society of Antiquaries. But other avoca- tions distracting my attention from the subject, I was for many years unable to find leisure to prepare the zrjemoir for press. , VOL. VIL 'B . 2 THE CONVENTUAL BUILDINGS OF THE I now gladly avail myself of the kind oifer of the Kent Archaeological Society to give this history a place in the ' Archseologia Cantiaria;' and beg to record my warmest acknowledgments to the members of the Chap- ter, and to their architect, for the liberal access afforded to me, as well to documents as to their private houses, in the chambers of which so many remains of the con- ventual buildings are concealed. Without such liberty of investigation it would have been useless for me to have undertaken the researches contained in the fol- lowing pages. CHAP. I. INTRODUCTION. In the year 1067 an accidental fire consumed the Saxon Cathedral of Canterbury, and nearly all the mo- nastic offices that appertained to it, as well as the church of St. John the Baptist, and also the books, the orna- ments, the charters and documents.1 The refectory, dormitory, and so much of the cloisters as enabled the monks to pass from one to the other without being- wetted by rain,2 remained unhurt. Three years after this event, the Norman ' Lanfranc, abbot of Caen, was made Archbishop of Canterbury; and when he came to Canterbury and found that the church which he had undertaken to rule was reduced to almost nothing by fire and ruin,3 he was filled with consternation. But taking, courage, and neg- lecting his own accommodation, he rapidly completed the buildings which were essential to the monks, razing to the ground every remains of the old burnt monastery, and eradicating their foundations. When these new buildings had been used some years, they became too small for the increased numbers of the convent, for Lanfranc had added one hundred monks, 1 Arch. Hist, of Cant. Oath. p. 9. s Ibid. p. 13. 3 Ibid. p. 17. MONASTERY OJP CHRIST CHURCH IN CANTERBURY. 3 and ordained that the total number should always be from one hundred and forty to one hundred and fifty. He therefore pulled down his first buildings, and con- structed in their stead others, which excelled them greatly, both in beauty and magnitude. He built Cloisters, Celerer's Offices, Eefectory, Dormitories, with all other necessaries, and all the buildings standing within the enclosure of the Curia, as well as the walls thereof. He also rebuilt and nearly finished the Church in seven years, the history of which has been completely given in my Architectural History of the Cathedral, and needs no further notice. From these historical passages it appears that Lan- franc set out the plan of a complete Norman Benedic- tine Monastery, and finished the essential edifices. Evidence will be adduced, as we proceed, which shows that the present Cloister is on the site of Lanfranc's, and that the Dormitory and other buildings belong to his work. The nave and western transepts, in fact, stand precisely upon the Norman site, and retained Lanfranc's north-western tower until 1825, or later. The next recorded event is the elongation of the eastern part of the Cathedral, the work of Anselm, Ernulf, and Conrad, between 1096 and 1110, which is fully detailed in my Architectural History; this was dedicated in 1130. About twenty years later, the monastery obtained the grant of a source of pure water, situated in a field now called the Holmes, about three-quarters of a mile north-east of the central tower of the cathedral. The charter (given in the Appendix, No. II.) is in the names of Archbishop Theobald and Walter, Bishop of Eoches- ter, and therefore dated between 1148 and 1162. Prom this source the water was conveyed to the priory of Christchurch, and distributed to all the offices in the B2 4 THE CONVENTUAL BUILDINGS 01? THE • court thereof, by a system of pipes of lead and cisterns devised and carried out by Prior Wibert, who took office in 1153, having been previously sub-prior, and died in 1167. The springs have continued to supply the convent from the first construction of the system to the present time, namely, through seven centuries. The pipes and cisterns have necessarily been changed, as the alterations, in the buildings, consequent upon the dissolution of the priory, and the conversion of them into separate resi- dences, compelled the ancient distribution inio lava- tories and receptacles adapted to the regular common life of the monks, to be exchanged for the form of supply employed in towns. It is to the first introduction of this complete system of waterworks into the convent that we owe the Norman drawing, which is lithographed to accompany this Me- moir, (Plate 1,) and which was first engraved by the Society of Antiquaries, in the second volume of the ' Vetusta Monumenta,' in 1755, and is a most valuable authority for the arrangement of the conventual build- ings of that period. This is a bird's-eye view of the entire convent, drawn in accordance with the artistic methods of the time, and exhibiting the cathedral and monastic offices, viewed from the north. The water-courses are mnvutely shewn, with all their arrangements from the source to the con- vent, and its distribution to the monastic offices, sup- plying lavatories, cisterns, fish-ponds, etc., and finally flowing, in conjunction with the rain-water from the roofs and the sewerage of the convent, into the town ditch. As the drawing was probably made after the system was completed, we may for convenience assume its date at 1165, two years before the death of Wibert, and five years before the murder of Becket. In the Appendix (No. I.) I have analysed the peculiari- ties of this drawing, and the smaller one which accom- MONASTERY OF CHEIST CHURCH IN CANTERBURY. 5' panies it, (Fig. 33,) and have endeavoured to shew that although their age may be really the same as that of the manuscript volume in which they are now bound, they have in reality no common origin with it. The MS. is an illuminated Psalter. The great drawing was originally much wider and longer. It is intruded into a space near the end of the MS., where several of the original pages are missing, and which it has heen cruelly pared down to fit. The second drawing has suffered in the same manner. I conclude that both the drawings were made by the hydrau- lic engineers who carried out the mechanism and system of the water-supply, and that the representations of the buildings of the convent were inserted solely to receive the plans of the pipes, receptacles, and sewers; and I have endeavoured in the Appendix to shew, from the nature of the liberties taken with the proportions and details of the structures, that this was the case. Referring to Chapter X. for a detailed explanation of the water-works, I will now proceed to describe the Norman monastery, and the changes it has under- gone from its foundation to the present time, employing the Norman drawing1 as evidence of the general con- dition and boundaries of the convent in the twelfth century, and of the use of various minor part's of th buildings, explained by its inscriptions. The first engraving of the Norman drawing purports 'to be of the same size as the original. It is in several parts inaccurate, and is deficient in character and style. It was therefore thought desirable to prepare a new 1 Tlie great Norman drawing has been inserted in several works, since its first publication in the 'Vetusta Monumenta,' in 1755. A, reduced .copy of that engraving appeared in Hasted's ' History of Kent,' in 1778; another in Lenoir's' Architecture Monastique' (4to, Par. 1852); and lately -this reduction, has been reproduced by Mr. "Walcott, in the Transactions of the Royal Institute of British Architects for 1863; hut these copies have never been collated with the original drawing, for they all faithfully reproduce the errors and omissions of the copy of 1755. 6 THE CONVENTUAL BUILDINGS OF THE copy for the present memoir, from a tracing made by myself from the original manuscript; and for its illus- tration I have drawn the plan (Plate 2) of the monas- tery, containing those buildings only of which Norman walls exist, or have existed in my memory, and those which, although subsequently rebuilt in the middle ages, are manifestly placed on the site of Norman build- ings, indicated in the Norman plan.