§ 28.
The precinct of a religious house was
separated from the outer world by an enclosing wall
or dyke, on the line of which a gatehouse gave
admission to the outer court (
curia). Here were
placed various offices and storehouses, and such
buildings as the almonry and guest-house, in which
the monastery came into necessary contact with
secular affairs. The church and cloister, devoted to
the religious life, occupied approximately the middle
of the precinct, the cloister and its surrounding
buildings being generally placed on the south side of
the nave of the church. At the east end of the
church was the graveyard; while outside the cloister
was a collection of buildings, sometimes arranged
round a court or smaller cloister, of which the chief
was the infirmary. In dealing with these divisions,
the church and cloister, the centre of the daily life of
the monastery, must be taken first. It is necessary to
remember that while the relative position of
curia,
cloister and infirmary buildings was almost always
the same, their actual position varied according to
the site of the monastery. The natural place for the
curia was on the west side of the church and cloister,
and in Cistercian monasteries, where the site was unencumbered
by other buildings, it is usually found in
this position. On the other hand, as at Durham and
Worcester, where the site was longer from north
to south than from east to west, the
curia was on
the south side of the cloister. Again, where a
monastery was founded on the north side of a town,
as at Canterbury, Chester and Gloucester, it was
convenient that the cloister should be on the
north side of the church, where seclusion and
quiet were possible. Occasionally, as at Tintern,
where a river ran north of the abbey, the cloister
was placed on that side for purposes of drainage;
while in a few instances a river on the west side
of the cloister was the cause of important variations
in the plan of the buildings. In one exceptional
case, at Rochester, the confined nature of the site
led to the building of the cloister on the south side
of the eastern arm of the church.
