Prior'S Kitchen (Dean And Chapter Library)

Prior's Kitchen, now a muniment room, was built between 1366 and 1374 by John Lewyn. It is constructed from coursed squared sandstone with a plinth and ashlar dressings. The building has an octagonal shape with corner projections that create a square plan at ground level. The lantern features a stone-flagged roof. The south elevation includes gabled angle buttresses flanking paired chamfered lancets; the corner bays have a cusped lancet on the left and an inserted small square window on the right, both topped with sloped stone coping. The building is crowned with a battlemented parapet and features a sundial on the right buttress. The lantern has a high hipped roof with gablets and gabled dormers.

Inside, the walls are made of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, along with later brick insertions. The stone-vaulted roof has 16 ribs that spring in parallel pairs from each side, forming a star shape with two ribs originating from each corner. The central intersections support the base of the lantern, which was reconstructed in render and glass around 1970. Each wall has a relieving arch, and there are ovens located on the north, south-west, and south-east walls, featuring brick voussoirs; the oven on the north-west wall has a brick segmental head. There are two round-headed doorways in the north-east wall, as well as doorways beside the fire in the north-west and south-west walls, the latter leading to a small room where the rear of an 18th-century bread oven can be seen, with the iron door of the oven located behind the medieval fire. The east wall has two-centred arched openings, while the west wall has similar but blind openings. The corner rooms utilize the space within the square-cornered additions to the octagonal plan, which serve as buttresses to the vault, with these structures being rubble-filled above the rooms. It is believed that the design of the vault is either original or inspired by mosques, such as those in Cordoba, Spain.