Guest House Of Coggeshall Abbey

TL 8422-8522 COGGESHALL ABBEY LANE (south side)

9/13 Guest-house of 2.5.53 Coggeshall Abbey (formerly listed as the Chapel of St. Catherine, Coggeshall Abbey)

GV I

Guest-house of Cistercian abbey, now boiler-house. Circa 1190, altered in late C16. Walls of flint rubble containing brick, with dressings of brick, raised with re-used original brick and tile; gables timber framed and weatherboarded; roofed with handmade red plain tiles. Rectangular plan aligned NNE-SSW (described here by the cardinal points) with axial stack, 1984. S wall demolished for post-Dissolution use as a barn. The W and E walls have each 4 lancet windows recessed in 2 plain orders; all are partly repaired, and 3 on the E are partly blocked. The N wall has at the W end a doorway with round arch and rear-arch, with rounded external arrises formed of moulded bricks, rebated internally for a door. The quoins are mainly of brick 0.33 x 0.15 x 0.045 metre, and are all partly repaired. Internally there are 5 recesses for seats in each of the W and E walls, and 2 in the N wall, all with round arches and similar rounded arrises; 2 on the W are partly filled with later masonry, but otherwise unaltered; 2 on th E are partly filled, and one is repaired; one on the N has lost its brick arch; the other has an internal pier of later brickwork, and is obstructed by a boiler flue of 1984. The N wall is reduced in thickness in 2 stages, with flat ledges; there is no evidence of beam-sockets for a floor. The walls have been raised approximately 0.50 metre in the late C16. The late C16 roof is in 2 bays, of clasped purlin construction with arched wind-braces, rafters of horizontal section, with bird-mouthed collars at the half-bay positions, complete. The amendment notice of 30 December 1958 identified this building as the Chapel of St Catherine; J.S. Gardner cites documentary evidence of 1464 that the Chapel was N of the (demolished) Nave (Coggeshall Abbey and its early brickwork, Journal of the British Archaeological Association, third series 18, 1955, 19-32 and plates 5-14). Gardner states from excavated evidence that the S wall originally had a doorway in line with that in the N wall, with a porch. Between them a floor of tiles on edge has been exposed, approximately 0.80 metre below present ground level. RCHM (Little Coggeshall) 2. A.M.

Listing NGR: TL8553522207