In the south eastern corner of Abbey House is a huge block of stonework commonly known as the abbey’s kitchen chimney. It appears that this block was left standing in the general depredations of the17th century, and that Manor House (Abbey and Manor Houses were originally one substantial building, called the manor house, before being split into two cottages) was simply built onto this existing mass of stone. When the owners of Abbey House recently replaced the heating system in their front room, they found beautiful monastic stonework hiding behind the plaster.
Expert opinion says that this ‘kitchen chimney’ has always been exposed to the outer air. The precise nature of the block, and the function of its apparent connections with other buildings, remain a puzzle.
Perimeter Buildings and other structures
Starting again near the east window, we find a mound to the south of St Werburgh’s Chapel and to the east of the Chapter House. This is the smaller of the two spoil mounds from St John Hope’s excavation in 1878, the larger one being to the north of the chancel. An early writer on the abbey’s history said that in this area there used to be a cemetery, where the canons meditated daily. In many other Premonstratensian abbeys, however, the bulk of the burials are found to the north of the chancel: in our case, that is now a field which has never been excavated.
The main slype which we encountered earlier probably led to the original infirmary. An infirmary was mentioned in Bishop Redman's visitation reports in 1478 and 1494 (but not in the inventory of October 1538) which record Brother Robert Aston as custos infirmarii 1478 and Brother George Slee, diaconus, as servitor infirmorum in 1494. As we noted in the chapter on the Little Church (see Chapter 2) there were major alterations to the Little Church in about 1480, when it appears that an infirmary was built onto the existing building. Conjecture might surmise that the original infirmary in the abbey field fell out of use at the end of the 1470s, and was replaced by the new building attached to the Little Church. Bishop Redman’s visitation reports would then be referring to the new building, not the old.
The old infirmary was excavated by Professor Colvin in 1938. The excavation revealed various foundations, complex, with drains, found in the Abbey field 125 feet east of the slype doorway (the one level with the east wall of the common room). The cloister end of the slype is dated 14th century, and it would seem likely that the original infirmary was built in that century.