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Summary - not yet available

Monument Type(s):

• REFECTORY (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• FLOOR (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)
• ARCHITECTURAL FRAGMENT (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Events:

• Excavations in The Nuns' Refectory, Denny Abbey, 1984-85

Protected Status:

• Scheduled Monument () 1012770: Denny Abbey
• Listed Building (I) 1331328: Denny Abbey Refectory

Full description

1. In 1773 James Essex visited the site and wrote this description of the refectory at that time:-"This was a large handsome room, 93ft 6ins long and 22ft 6ins wide. On the N side there were six handsome windows which made it very light and cheerful. At the E end was a large window between two smaller and above it a quatrefoile. At the W end was another window but less than the opposite. On the S side there were windows next the cloister but not like the opposite; but as the wall on this side has been partly rebuilt only one of them remains now. Between the 4tand 5th windows on the N side is a square projecting building with a small door inwards. In the middle of the W end was a recess for the laver; and in the angle a small door leading to some apartment at that end. There was likewise a door leading to some apartment at the E end. The walls of the refectory were wainscoted part of their height and the rest was plastered and painted in imitation of a tracery much used in the time of Edward III. "

The refectory actually measures 28,20m by 6,88m (92ft 6in by22ft 6in. The walls are mainly of clunch and rough stone, still partly rendered on the N side in a shelly plaster. Barnack stone was used for the offset plinth, buttresses, heads and sills of windows and the lower parts of the jambs. Clunch was used for window tracery and for most of the inside walls. One of the original N windows was destroyed when barn doorways were inserted, at about the time when the projecting building on the N side was demolished and its openings into the refectory carefully blocked up with salvaged materials. This projection is clearly shown on the Bucks' engraving of 1730,Relhan's watercolour of c 1800 and an engraving of 1828. It had windows on two levels suggesting a first floor. The other windows in the N wall were originally of two trefoiled ogee lights beneath a quatrefoil in a two-centred segmental head. They were later blocked and part shuttered for farm use. The original N buttresses are each of two stages on a chamfered plinth which was continued all along the wall. The E windows which Essex described can just be seen in the Bucks' engraving but only the central sill and lower splays now remain. A barn door was later inserted in the central window. The only window on the S side is a blocked C16 one. The insertion of this window appears to be the only major alteration to the building carried out in its life-time as a refectory. Outside and just E of this window there is a projecting jamb for a doorway leading into a room at the E end of the E range of the cloister. The small blocked doorway at the E end of the same wall would have also led here. W of the blocked window is a corbel that may have once supported the cloister walk roof. W of the barn doorway the S wall has been rebuilt but the lowest jambs of the original W doorway from the cloister are just visible from both outside and within. The thickness of the original Franciscan wall remains as an irregular offset at ground level outside. There is now no trace of what Essex called the 'recess for the laver' which could conceivably have been a partially blocked serving hatch or perhaps a niche to house an image, because 'lavers' or wash basins were invariably built outside refectories in the cloister. The C14wall painting mentioned by Essex survived into the early 1970s in patches of plaster on the E wall and adjacent parts of the N and S walls. The wooden panelling which Essex also mentions has not survived but there is evidence for its fixing on the original wall face, chiefly in short lengths of chasing either side of the windows which cut through the plaster and into the soft clunch. The chasings measure about 50mm wide and up to 25mm deep and have holes at intervals presumably for fixing battens onto which the panelling was nailed. On the E wall there were two rows of chasings, the lower one on a level with the window sill and the upper one about 0,85mabove it, showing that the panelling was higher at this the 'high' end of the refectory.

Excavations were carried out over the period May 1984 to September1985, primarily to establish the original floor level within the refectory. After removal of the layers associated with the agricultural use of the building, the original floor level was found still largely intact. Tiles were set in a chequer pattern of dark green or black and yellow glazes set diagonally to the walls and divided by three long parallel rows of single tiles. The tiles are c 10,5cm square1,6cm thick, probably from the tile kiln at Bawsey near King's Lynn(see fig 4 for the design). The footings of the seating and tabling arrangements were found still in situ. In the case of the seating the footings were offset from the main wall on both the N and S sides of the building, while structures running approximately parallel to these at a distance of approximately 0,50m from them seem to represent all that survives of a narrow platform or footpace. At the end of the building, surviving footings suggest the original presence of a dais. Raised approximately 0,30m above the level of the main floor and served by the adjacent doorway, this clearly represents the basis for a 'high table'. A few tiles remaining on the threshold of this doorway imply that the surface of the dais was itself tiled. Running N - S across the width of the refectory and passing through the footings on either side was a narrow drainage channel, stone-sided and stone-based with a flat stone capping. This is overlain by the floor tiles, so clearly pre-dates the laying of these.

Excavation against the exterior face of the W wall revealed two lines of footings keyed into the refectory footings and at right angles to them, forming a continuation of the line of the N and S walls of the refectory. It seems likely that these indicate the position of the kitchen. There was a small fragment of marble with an incised design of two curved strips between stylised leaves. Its maximum width is 50mm and it is of an even 5mm thickness, presumably part of a decorative panel, perhaps a reredos.

2. See MCB19545 for details of a possible annex to the refectory.

3. Denny Abbey Refectory, Ely Road. Grade I listed. Refectory of Franciscan nunnery c.1340. The refectory was built from Barnack and ashlar limestone. There are five, two-trefoiled-light windows with quatrefoils in the north wall. The south wall was rebuilt in the 16th and 17th centuries while the west wall was rebuilt in the 17th and 18th centuries. Converted to 8 bay barn with thatched roof before 1730.

4-6. The refectory of the Franciscan nuns lies 35 metres to the north of the farmhouse (TL46 NE 9). The refectory was used as a barn until 1940's and then became neglected and roofless. In 1979 it was decided to re-roof the barn and carry out excavations. Between May 1984 to September 1985 excavations revealed remains of post dissolution features including a corn drying kiln and reused masonry for stone sleepers. nder these features were the remains of substantial areas of 14th century tiles in situ. The nuns were moved to the Abbey by dowager countess of Pembroke and the convent was refounded there in 1342. The tiles on the floor of the refectory can be related to tiles manufactured at Bawsey in Norfolk. The remains of a possible dais for the high table has also been discovered at the East end of the Refectory

<1> Poster, J. and Sherlock, D., 1988, Denny Abbey: The Nuns' Refectory. PCAS 76: 67-82 (Article in serial). SCB11007.

<2> Gilmour, N., 2011, Denny Abbey, Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire: Archaeological test pit evaluation report (Unpublished report). SCB22110.

<3> 2015, National Heritage List for England (NHLE) (Index). SCB60655.

<4> Christie, P. M. and Coad, J. G., 1980, Excavations at Denny Abbey. Archaeological Journal 137: 138-279 (Article in serial). SCB17439.

<5> Elrington, C.R. (ed.), 1989, The Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely. Volume 9 (Bibliographic reference). SCB14666.

<6> Wood, R., Denny Abbey and the Farmland Museum (Unpublished document). SCB62260.

<7> The Farmland Museum and Denny Abbey (Website). SCB62261.

<8> English Heritage, The English Heritage visitors' handbook 1998-99 (Bibliographic reference). SCB62262.

<9> English Heritage, English Heritage Visitor Handbook 2009/10 (Bibliographic reference). SCB62263.

Sources and further reading

Related records

Related documents and web pages

• http://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/archives/view/greylit/details.cfm?id=32882vvvvv
• https://library.thehumanjourney.net/1030/

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