The Abbot'S Lodging And Corridor Of Coggeshall Abbey

The Abbot's Lodging and Corridor of Coggeshall Abbey

The Abbot's lodging and corridor form part of the surviving structures of a Cistercian abbey. The lodging dates to circa 1190 and was altered around 1220 and again in the late 16th century. The corridor is contemporary with the alterations of around 1220.

The lodging is constructed of flint rubble containing brick, with brick dressings, while the corridor is built of flint rubble with brick and stone dressings, and chalk in the vault. Both structures are roofed with handmade red plain tiles. The lodging is rectangular in plan, aligned east to west, with the corridor extending northwards from its east end. Both buildings are of two storeys.

The east elevation of the lodging has on the ground floor one lancet window with plain jambs and arch. The first floor contains two lancet windows recessed in two plain orders. In the gable is a late 16th-century window of four lights with chamfered mullions, jambs and straight head. The north elevation displays on the ground floor a late 16th-century doorway with a straight brick head, a blocked lancet window in two recessed orders with rounded arrises, and a doorway to the corridor with jambs and a two-centred head in two orders with rounded arrises. The first floor has a late 16th-century window of two lights with chamfered mullion, jambs and straight head, and a doorway from the corridor with jambs and a round arch in two roll-moulded orders; both doorways are rebated internally. Near the west end is the stub of the west wall of the demolished dorter, with a moulded stone corbel in the angles, formerly supporting the vault. The south elevation contains a blocked lancet window on the ground floor, as does the west elevation.

The walls were raised approximately 0.60 metre in the late 16th century using re-used original brick and tile, two floors were inserted at the same time, and a roof was added for secular domestic use. In later agricultural use, window and door apertures were made in the north, south and west walls, apparently in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the attic floor was removed. At the time of survey in August 1987, part of the ground floor was in use as a stable.

The ground floor comprises four chamfered transverse beams, some supported on jowled posts, and plain joists of horizontal section jointed to them with soffit tenons with diminished haunches, with many original boards. The internal beam nearest the east end has empty mortices for a former studded partition in the north half only. Existing ground floor partitions appear to be later insertions; at the west end many joists have been replaced. On the first floor, between the east windows is a tall recess with a two-centred arch, and in the south wall near the east end is a smaller recess with a two-centred arch. J.S. Gardner interprets these as for a crucifix and piscina.

The roof is in five bays, with queen posts, clasped purlins and evenly arched wind-braces. One queen post is of re-used medieval moulded timber, heavily weathered. The tiebeams have mortices for the former attic floor, but none for partitions on the first floor; they are strengthened with iron ties. One collar has mortices for a former studded partition on the attic floor, dividing it into two and three bays.

The corridor is of three bays with chamfered quadripartite brick vaulting, and a shorter bay at the north end with a four-centred barrel vault. The ribs are plastered and painted with orange false masonry lines on white, some of which survives in good condition. Above the ribs are large irregular pieces of chalk set in mortar. The east wall is divided into bays by brick buttresses and has one round arch and one two-centred arch, each with a chamfered inner order stopping at imposts, below which it continues as two roll-mouldings. The arch to the north was blocked in the late 16th century for a doorway with chamfered jambs and four-centred arch of stone, rebated internally for a door, with one pintle hinge in situ. On the arch are inscribed the initials A.C. in cursive script, and various graffiti. Above the door is a window of three lights with chamfered mullions, jambs and four-centred arches, and one original iron diamond saddle bar. To the north of this is a detached stone shaft with a moulded capital, from which springs the cross-arch.

The west elevation has a two-centred doorway with rounded external arrises and internally two roll-moulded orders, with a plain segmental arch above and a two-centred arch above it. Gardner interprets this as an east doorway of the dorter, circa 1180, altered around 1220 to conform with the rest of the corridor. To the north of it is a stone attached half-shaft with a moulded capital, formerly supporting the vault of the dorter. One blocked arch has stone dressings and internally a window with clustered shafts and nook-shafts with moulded capitals, a twisted and beaded central shaft, one incomplete moulded inner arch and a complete moulded outer arch, formerly of the dorter, circa 1180. At the north end is a doorway of around 1220, with jambs and two-centred arch of two roll-moulded orders, of plastered brick. The front of it is now within a short link connecting the corridor to the 16th-century house called The Abbey.

The upper storey of the corridor has a wide window aperture on each side of the north end, and on the east side two blocked original splayed window apertures. The north end is blocked off with thin studding and primary straight bracing. The south end has over the doorway a late 16th-century timber-framed gable with original wattle and daub infill, and on the south side original lime plaster. The late 16th-century roof is in four bays and an incomplete bay at the north end, with chamfered straight tiebeams of vertical section with lamb's tongue stops, clasped purlins and original rafters of horizontal section. Most of the wind-braces are arched, but five are of serpentine shape.