Guest House Of Coggeshall Abbey

This is a guest house of the Cistercian Coggeshall Abbey, now used as a boiler house. It dates to around 1190, with alterations made in the late 16th century. The building is constructed of flint rubble with brick, incorporating reused original brick and tile. The gables are timber-framed and weatherboarded, and the roof is covered in handmade red plain tiles. The original layout was rectangular, aligned north-north-east to south-south-west. The south wall was demolished after the Dissolution of the Abbey, and was used as a barn. The west and east walls each contain four lancet windows recessed in simple orders; these have been partly repaired, with three of those on the east side partially blocked. The north wall has a doorway with a round arch and rear arch, featuring rounded external arrises formed of moulded bricks, rebated internally for a door. The quoins are largely brick, measuring approximately 0.33 x 0.15 x 0.045 metres and are partly repaired. Internally, there are five recesses for seats in each of the west and east walls, and two in the north wall, all with round arches and similar rounded arrises. Two on the west are partly filled with later masonry, while two on the east are also filled and one has been repaired. One north recess has lost its brick arch, the other has a later brick pier obstructing a boiler flue installed in 1984. The north wall’s thickness is reduced in two stages, with flat ledges. There is no evidence of beam-sockets for a floor. The walls have been raised approximately 0.50 metres in the late 16th century. The roof, also from the late 16th century, is a two-bay structure with clasped purlins, arched wind-braces, rafters of a horizontal section, and bird-mouthed collars at the half-bay positions. Historical records from 1464, documented by J.S. Gardner, identified the building as the Chapel of St Catherine, located north of the demolished nave of Coggeshall Abbey. Excavated evidence reveals that the south wall originally had a doorway aligned with the one on the north wall, including a porch. A floor of edge-set tiles has been exposed approximately 0.80 metres below the current ground level.