Basingwerk Abbey

Basingwerk Abbey is an early 13th-century church featuring a seven-bay aisled nave, transepts with paired eastern chapels, and a square-ended presbytery. The south transept's west wall and the crossing pier are the tallest surviving parts of the church. The triple corbelled chancel arch springers are still intact. The chapter house located on the eastern claustral range has an octagonal pier that supports two round arches at the entrance; this is part of a 12th-century chamber that was enlarged at the same time the church was built. The southern end of the eastern range originally housed the dorter and a mid-13th-century warming house, of which the bases of two drum piers remain; this warming house was once vaulted and underwent some remodelling in the 15th century. The refectory on the southern side dates from the mid-13th century and features a fine arcade on the west wall with annulettes on the shafts; this included the reader's pulpit within a rounded arch, and adjacent lancets that lit the projecting stairs. At the corner between the eastern and southern ranges is the base of the day-stairs. There is also a post-Dissolution half-timbered range to the southeast, which is on the site of the former Infirmary or Abbot's Lodgings.