§ 58.
An important variation of plan in the
western range occurs in three prominent instances.
In each case the peculiarity is determined by the fact
that a river forms the western boundary of the site,
and afforded special convenience for drainage, while
in two cases, at Durham and Worcester, the western
range was on the side furthest from the town houses
near the monastery. (1) At Worcester the cellarage
was beneath the frater, and there was no western
range parallel to the cloister. The dorter, with the
common house below, was at right angles to the west
walk of the cloister, and the rere-dorter was at the
further end of this building next the river. A passage
between the common house and the church led to
the infirmary. (2) At Durham the older dorter and
common house seem to have been, as at Peterborough,
in the eastern range and its southward extension,
next the chapter-house. But in the thirteenth century
a long range was built at the back of the west walk.
The great dorter occupied the whole of the upper
floor. Its southern end, which crossed the west end
of the frater range, was appropriated to the novices;
and a stair into the cloister, close to the church, at
the northern end, served for day and night use alike.
The vaulted ground-floor next the cloister was divided
into a treasury next the church and a common house.
In the bay at the junction of the south and west
walks a passage led through the range to the infirmary,
which, as at Worcester and for the same reasons, was
on the west side of the monastery. The bays beyond
this contained the cellar and buttery, now known as
the crypt, with entrances at one end from the infirmary
and at the other from the cellarer's checker
or office and the kitchen buildings in the outer court.
A part of the old eastern range next the chapter-house
was used as a prison for refractory monks,
while the place of the rest was taken by the prior's
lodging, now part of the deanery. (3) In the Premonstratensian
house of St Agatha, the dorter was on
the first floor of the western range and extended
southwards, as at Durham, across the west end of the
frater: its stair descended to the cloister at the south
end of the west walk, dividing the common house
and adjacent cellarage from the cellarer's guest-hall,
which formed the five southern bays of the dorter
sub-vault. There was, however, a large two-storied
annexe west of the dorter, the upper story of which
seems to have been used for lodging guests of the
better class, while, of the three divisions of its ground-floor,
the middlemost and largest may have been
occupied by their servants, with a narrow cellar on
the east, and a drain, crossed by transverse arches,
on the west side. The whole arrangement is quite
exceptional and was probably unique; but the plan
of the dorter sub-vault, allowing for some difference
in use, bears a strong resemblance to the plan at
Durham.
