Reading was not entirely silent:  the modern practice of silent reading is exactly that – modern. Canons would have mumbled as they read. Absolute silence was maintained between about 5.30 p.m. and 9.30 a.m.: any unavoidable conversation would have been muttered, probably in the slype.

Although canons were expected to carry out manual labour, they were, at least initially, helped by lay brothers, otherwise known as conversi. These men were illiterate but monastic, wearing grey habits and beards. There was an attempt by Abbot William, the second abbot of St Mary’s Abbey, who became Father Abbot at Prémontré, to force lay brethren to wear grey copes instead of the customary white ones: the lay brethren complained to the Pope, but Abbot William’s decree was upheld.
Lay brothers did the majority of the field and farm work. A lay brother from the Tupholm era built Baldock Mill in Stanley. They were not allowed to possess books, and were taught only a few prayers. In the 12th and 13th centuries they were usually allotted living quarters, but the buildings were later put to other use, the lay brother system declining in the 14th century, to disappear by the 15th century. St Mary’s Abbey still had lay brothers in around 1287.