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Monument Types

• SLYPE (MEDIEVAL - 1066 AD to 1539 AD (between))
• TREASURY (MEDIEVAL - 1066 AD to 1539 AD (between))

Full description

Medieval parlour or slype, giving access to the prior's lodgings (WCM 96375) and the monastic cemetery (WCM 96384) from the cloister (WCM 96376).

Barker noted that although it lies between the cathedral (wcm 96371) south-west transept and the chapter house (WCM 96372), and should therefore be contemporary with them, 'it is almost entirely built of re-used Anglo-Saxon masonry'. This includes the blind arcades on both sides of the passage, made up of re-used engaged shafts, bulbous capitals and bases, and 'voussoirs crudely put together'; only the capitals on the south side appear to have been new in the late 11th century, matching those in the crypt. Beyond noting the differences in the character of the construction of the eastern slype to that of most of the rest of Wulfstan's church and cloister, Barker could offer no explanation {1}.

Willis did not comment on the pre-Conquest character of the arcade detailing. He noted that the vault over the passage is covered by an early Norman vault springing from two plain arches enclosing the blind arcading. The treasury is a series of vaulted rooms constructed over the ground-floor passageway in 1377, extending over the triangular space between the east end of the passage and the chapter house. Original access to the treasury was via a doorway from the cathedral transept vestries and a staircase 'defended by singular openings in its vault after the manner of machicolations {2} {3}

Sources and further reading

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