§ 66.
The western range of a Cistercian cloister
was sometimes separated from the west walk by an
intervening passage or yard, as at Kirkstall, Pipewell
and a few other houses, probably more in number
than has been supposed. At the end of this yard
was the western processional doorway of the church,
the position of which depended on convenience for
the Sunday procession, which always passed outside
the west cloister, through the ground-floor of the
western range. If the church extended west of the
range, the doorway, as at Fountains, was in the
building itself, or, as at Jervaulx, where the building
did not directly join the church, in the bay west of it.
If the range was to the west of a short nave, as at
Hayles and Tintern, and there was no intermediate
yard, the doorway was cut obliquely through the
corner of the building which touched, or was near
the church. The whole of the first floor was given
up to the dorter of the lay brothers, to which was
attached a rere-dorter, the arrangements of which
are still remarkably perfect at Fountains. A night-stair
descended into the church, as at Fountains, or,
as at Jervaulx, just outside the western processional
doorway: in houses where there was an intervening
yard, the night-stair was placed against the east wall
of the range. The ground-floor was divided by a
passage, which was the outer parlour and main
entrance of the cloister and entered the west walk
close to the kitchen, into a long apartment on the
side furthest from the church, and into a series of
smaller rooms adjoining the church and cloister. The
large room was the frater of the lay brothers: the
rooms on the other side of the outer parlour were
the buttery and cellars, and could be entered by
doorways from the outer court and cloister-walk,
while there were doors in the partition-walls between
them. The building varied much in length. The
splendid example at Fountains is twenty-two bays
long, divided by columns into two alleys. The marks
of the original partitions and doorways shew that two
bays next the church were possibly the earlier outer
parlour. The cellar was in the four bays following.
Two bays were occupied by the buttery, two by the
main entrance-passage; while the remaining twelve
were the lay brothers' frater, two bays at the north
end of which were screened off and had an outer
doorway to the cellarer's checker. The western face
was covered by one of those wooden pentises which
were a very general feature in medieval buildings to
cover doorways from a court or yard and form a
sheltered means of access from one building to
another. The day-stair to the dorter was naturally
on this side of the building, and mounted against the
north wall of the cellarer's checker, the upper floor
of which was a lobby to the dorter. The arrangements
at Furness were very similar, but there were
only fifteen bays, of which the cellar seems to have
occupied only two, the cloister-entry one, and the
lay-brothers' frater eight, the buttery and the two
bays next the church remaining as at Fountains.
The division into alleys, although it occasionally was
employed, as at Furness and Waverley, was not
general, and the building was frequently narrow in
proportion to its length. When the cloister of
Waverley was enlarged in the thirteenth century,
the cellarer's building was taken down to make way
for the west walk, but its southern part, containing
the lay brothers' frater and dorter, was rebuilt and
extended southward.
