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Designations

• Registered Park or Garden (II) 1000309: BATTLE ABBEY
• Registered Battlefield 1000013: Battle of Hastings, 1066
• Conservation Area: BATTLE
• Scheduled Monument: BATTLE ABBEY

Summary

The cloister lay on the south side of the church nave, at the core of the monastic complex linking together its principal buildings. Only fragments of its western ambulatory now survive above ground.

Monument Types

• LINEAR FEATURE (Undated)
• (Former Type) CHAPTER HOUSE (AD 11th Century to AD 16th Century - 1000 AD to 1599 AD)
• (Former Type) CLOISTER (AD 11th Century to AD 16th Century - 1000 AD to 1599 AD)
• DRAIN (Medieval - 1066 AD? to 1539 AD?)
• (Former Type) DORMITORY (AD 13th Century to AD 18th Century - 1200 AD to 1799 AD)
• (Former Type) PRIVY HOUSE (AD 13th Century to AD 16th Century - 1200 AD to 1599 AD)
• (Former Type) REFECTORY (AD 13th Century to AD 16th Century - 1200 AD to 1599 AD)
• (Former Type) KITCHEN (AD 14th Century to AD 17th Century - 1300 AD to 1699 AD)
• WALL (AD 19th Century - 1800 AD to 1899 AD)

Description

The plan has been prepared to inform the conservation and management of the buildings, park and battlefield at the English Heritage property of Battle Abbey. The plan outlined that English Heritage should comply with the legal and procedural requirements for scheduled monuments, listed buildings and conservation areas, together with best practice in the management and presentation of the non-statutory registered battlefield, archaeological notification areas, and registered historic park. The wider setting of the site within the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the policies in the High Weald AONB Management Plan 2014-2019 should always be considered in any actions. Best professional practice and English Heritage’s own advisory documents should be followed at all times. There are three particular subject areas that should be at the forefront of this approach within the plan period archaeological investigation and recording, the presentation of the building and the landscape and the wider setting of the property. [1]
The original cloister was built by Abbot Gausbert (1076-95), and is described by the Abbey’s Chronicle as being humble in form, and presumably therefore of timber construction.79 It was replaced by Abbot Walter de Luci c. 1170 ‘with pavement and columns of [Sussex] marble’:80 it is thought that several marble capitals of this date discovered in excavation elsewhere on the site belong to this structure. The cloister was included in the mid-thirteenth-century rebuilding of the abbey, which replaced its eastern and southern ambulatories and the southern two bays of its western. A lavatorium is thought to have lain in its southern ambulatory, convenient for the entrance to the refectory, although no evidence for this now survives. The remainder of the structure was not rebuilt until a bequest for this purpose was left to the abbey in 1421.
The Duchess of Cleveland records the existence of the abbey well on the north side of the cloister garth, which was dismantled in 1815. [2]
Further information [3]
Harold Brakspear carried out an excavation between 1929 and 1935. This significantly refined existing knowledge of the ground-plan of the abbey, including the Norman chancel, chapter house, Refectory, kitchen, north transpent, parlour and South wall of guesthouse undercroft. He also re-excavated the 13th century crypt. Details of the excavations were reported in Sussex Notes and Queries following a report in the Times Newspaper. [4]
A programme of excavations were undertaken following the acquisition of the site by the government in 1976. The work was concentrated on the eastern range of the conventual buildings, particularly around the chapter house and parlour, the agenda was to assess the nature of the surviving archaeology as well as to reveal a number of the buildings identified by Brakspear for display. This work was undertaken between 1978-80, with smaller additional excavations until 1984. Its published results form the basis for much of our present understanding of the site. [5]
A small excavation was carried out in the north west corner of the cloister at Battle Abbey in May 1995. The purpose of the work was to establish whether a doorway had existed in the north wall of the Cloister (South wall of the Norman Church Nave). A false doorway built for ornamental purpose was recorded. A few stones from the nearby rockery garden were removed and one of these proved to be a very worn grinding stone. Evidence for a possible earlier wall within the original north cloister wall was recorded in the form of sandstone blocks. [6]
As part of a programme of maintenance on the Dorter Building, work was carried out on the sills of the 1st floor windows. These sills are of ironstone and thought to be the work of Sir Harold Brakespear in the 1930's. The sill level of the dormitory windows is around 100cm above floor level. However, in some cases the wall below this level is clearly a replacement. [7]
A small excavation was carried out on a small area on the exterior of the western doorway into the north room of the Dorter undercroft. The work was carried out to try to alleviate rainwater puddling through the insertion of a drain in front of the current threshold. Two areas of unknown archaeology were investigated. Within area A a small rubble foundation was observed but insufficient evidence remained to be certain of its nature. The excavation also showed that the chamfer of the southern door jamb does not carry on below the current threshold indicating that the replacement threshold had been correctly located. A dump of burnt material containing a mass of animal bones, possibly fish was recovered beneath a clay layer. Three ashlar block have been carefully laid in a line running north south through the area. A number of undated finds including broken tile and square headed iron nails were recorded. Area B yielded very little except for a rubble filled pit, capped by modern cement. [8]
Traces of a linear drain were located during a watching brief in East Park, Battle Abbey which appeared to run south from the Reredorter. Although of probable medieval date it had been disturbed by modem land-drains. A further probable medieval drain/ditch and slight evidence of a third was found apparently running south from the Abbey's Cellarers Range. These appeared to have been infilled with demolition material during the Dissolution. Despite a thorough search of all spoil with a metal detector no artefacts relating to the battle were located though this may have been due to the keyhole nature of the groundworks. [9]
An archaeological watching brief was carried out on the North-East corner of the former cloister at Battle Abbey, High Street, Battle. Repairs were being carried out on a 19th century wall. [10]
Analysis was undertaken on timbers from the Gatehouse, the Dorter, and the Reredorter resulting in the construction of two site sequences. Site sequence BTLASQ01 contains three samples, two from the Reredorter and one from the Dorter, and spans the period AD 1310–1437. The Reredorter timbers are both likely to have been felled in AD 1416, whilst the beam from the Dorter has a terminus post quem for felling of AD 1452. The second site sequence, containing two Gatehouse samples, is undated, as are the remaining individual samples. [11]
An unknown linear concrete feature set into natural clay and sealed by redeposited clay was recorded from the northern frater wall along the west side of the cloister during a watching brief for an electricity cable. [12

Sources

Associated Events

• ST MARTIN'S ABBEY/BATTLE ABBEY, High Street, Battle : Excavation (Ref: EI 634 and EL 636)
• ST MARTIN'S ABBEY/BATTLE ABBEY, High Street, Battle : Excavation (Ref: EI 635)
• NW Corner of the Cloister, Battle Abbey, High Street, Battle : Excavation (Ref: 2.22/3)
• Dorter West Wall, Battle Abbey, High Street, Battle : Watching Brief (Ref: 2.22/4)
• Dorter, Battle Abbey, High Street, Battle : Excavation (Ref: 2.22/2)
• kitchen and Refectory, Battle Abbey, High Street, Battle : Evaluation (Ref: 2.22/6)
• East Park, Battle Abbey, High Street, Battle : Watching Brief
• NE corner of cloister, Battle Abbey, High Street, Battle : Watching Brief
• Battle Abbey, High Street, Battle : Tree Ring Analysis
• School House, Battle Abbey, High Street, Battle : Watching Brief (Ref: 2.22/6)

Associated Monuments

• MES3355 - Part of: Battle Abbey, Battle : Norman/Medieval Abbey (Monument)

Associated Finds

• GRINDSTONE (Undated)
• NAIL (Undated)
• TILE (Undated)
• STRUCTURAL TIMBER (AD 14th Century to AD 15th Century - 1310 AD to 1437 AD)

Search results generated by the HBSMR Gateway from exeGesIS SDM Ltd.