OS1/14/5/56

Continued entries/extra info

[Page] 56

Immediately adjoining and in connection with the Chancel is the Choir or Quire where the principal part of the
Church Service was performed. It occupied both sides of what might be called the west end of the Chancel having the High
Altar between, which had not been insolated but affixed to a reredos screen, that had extended between the two easternmost piers
shutting off as it were the Chancel, and thus commanded a view of the whole Church. A hollowed out stone yet marks
the spot it is said the Rood or Cross was placed. From the Chancel on the north side nearly the whole north part of the Abbey
consisting of the north side of the Choir the north Transept, and the north side of the Nave and Aisle are now levelled with
the ground but the foundations Can be distinctly traced. On the south side the building is yet pretty entire and correctly
shows the figure of the Church which had been in the form of a Cross. + + + + +
Entering from the Choir on the south and on the east side of the south Transept there is a building which although
immediately communicating with the Church has by a reference to its external parts been an annexation at a subsequent period.
It consists of two apartments or rather three for there is a small apartment off the large one on the ground floor and one
above. The largest apartment on the ground floor has a fine vaulted roof. + + + +
Access to the ground apartment (which had evidently been a Chantry or Chapel) had been directly through the Church
but to the upper apartment externally from the south corner which terminates in a small octagonal Capped turret.
The upper apartment is said to have been the Charter-room where the records, archives, and Chartularies of
the Abbey, &c. were kept.
Bremnar's Hand Book of the Abbey 1852

Nearly opposite the Abbot's house and ranging along the South wall of the Church Is the place formerly occupied
by the Piazzas, or Cloisters of the Abbey; but there are now no vestiges of them remaining except some
corbels protruding from the wall by which the roof of the Cloisters had been supported. Externally
at the junction of the nave and transept an elaborately-decorated door-way had led from the cloisters into the body of the church
but the ornamental Carving is now almost entirely effaced. This part of the Abbey ground was called the Abbey Close
Bremnar's Hand Book of the Abbey 1852