Cathedral Cloister East Range

The east range of the cathedral cloister includes the slype, chapter house, and prison. Construction began in the 11th century and continued with alterations in the 12th and 13th centuries. A room above the slype was added in the 15th century, and the chapter house was mostly rebuilt in 1895-1896 by C. Hodgson Fowler in memory of Bishop Lightfoot. The building is made of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, and the roof is not visible.

The entrance to the chapter house features a tall round arch with chevron moulding, flanked by lower two-light openings that are now glazed and supported by cushion-moulded capitals on shafts. Further north, there is a tall chevron-moulded arch on similar shafts leading to the slype, which is now used as a vestry and has half-glazed doors dated 1903. The cloister consists of 11 buttressed bays with 3-light 18th-century openings that have intersecting tracery. The dwarf walls have low-curved coping, and there is a roll-moulded parapet.

Inside, the chapter house contains medieval wall arcades, some of which have been renewed. The first bay is made of early rubble, and there are renewed rib vaults supported by renewed caryatid corbels, with three original caryatids placed in non-functional positions. The east apse features a bishop's throne with arm-rests and a back from an earlier stone throne. The prison to the south has a small round-headed window in the east wall of the first chamber, which is now a sacristy, along with a triangular-headed window that was altered when the chapter house was built. A second smaller room at the east end of the southern part is also a sacristy. To the west is the prison, which has a blocked cusped food-hatch. The slype features a five-light window, a barrel vault with wall arcades similar to those in the chapter house, and a chevron-moulded inner arch on shafts. The upper room has a low-pitched 15th-century roof.