Cathedral Cloister And Lavatorium

The Cathedral Cloister and Lavatorium is located on the north side of the nave of the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity. Until 1538 it served as the great cloister of the Benedictine Abbey of St Peter.

The cloister comprises a large square garth surrounded by alley walks on all four sides. Six bays of the east alley, running from the transept of the Cathedral Church to the door of the Chapter House, were built around 1360, probably by Thomas of Cambridge, master-mason, for Abbot Horton. These bays are notable as the earliest recorded use of fan vaulting in England. The remaining alleys were built between 1381 and 1412 to the same general design but with slightly different details, constructed by Robert Lesyngham, master-mason. The structure has undergone restoration in the 19th and 20th centuries. The roof timbers above the south alley were replaced around 1960 by pre-stressed concrete construction. The cloister is built in ashlar with lead roofs, and each alley contains ten bays between corner bays.

The east alley garth wall comprises nine full-width bays and a narrower tenth bay at the south end. The bays are defined by buttresses in two stages with lower raking offsets and thin strip buttresses above, which offset under a continuous crowning moulded string course with coped parapet. A moulded string course at the bases of the lower offsets continues across the face of each window as a boldly projecting transom to throw off rainwater. Each of the nine full-width bays contains a large eight-light arched window with a central super-mullion supporting two major arches, dividing the tracery pattern of intersecting ogee arches to the lights at springing level and foiled panels above. The narrow tenth bay at the south end has a six-light window with similar tracery.

The south alley garth wall's ten bays, defined by similar buttresses, are infilled to the level of the moulded string course by walling pierced with two small two-light windows with traceried heads lighting carrels within the alley. Above the string course in each bay is a six-light window with tracery of similar but less complex pattern than those in the east alley. The west alley also contains ten bays with full-height windows of similar tracery to the south range. The north range, except for the bays containing the lavatorium, follows the design of the west range.

The lavatorium projects into the garth at the west end of the north alley, occupying bays 2 to 5. Its outer wall comprises four bays defined by buttresses with offsets and crowned by pinnacles. Each bay contains two two-light windows facing the garth, with similar windows at each return end of the projection.

The interior is of exceptional interest. Generally, the bays in each alley are defined by slender wall shafts with moulded bases and capitals which rise to support the springing of the fan vault conoids. On the inner walls, blind panels framed by the wall shafts and vaulting reflect the pattern of the opposite window in the garth wall unless interrupted by a door or window opening. The east alley contains doors to the Chapter House and the former Monks' Dormitory. Within the south alley garth wall are twenty carrels or desk recesses, two to each bay, each with a moulded segmental-arched opening head, all surmounted by a richly embattled cornice, with cloister windows above.

The north alley's four bays opening into the garth wall contain two arches in each bay leading into the lavatorium. Within the lavatorium are eight bays with fan vaulting. Along its outer wall is a stone bench for a trough for washing. In the inner wall is a groined recess for towels. In the west corner bay is a 13th-century doorway with jamb shafts and moulded arch to the former Refectory. Against the north wall is a stone bench with scratched lines for games, identified as Nine Men's Morris.