MONASTIC BUILDINGS AND PALACE
The remains of the
monastic buildings are
very extensive, probably the most extensive in the country if we consider not only the extent of
the ground plan that is recoverable but also the large
number of buildings that stand practically intact with
vaulted undercroft and medieval roof.
The Cloister is on the south side of the nave. The
gross measurements of the Norman cloister were 130 ft.
east to west by 145 ft. north to south. It was enlarged
by the rebuilding of the west pane in the 15th century
about 19 ft. farther west. The window walls of the
north and east panes are practically entire and date
apparently from about 1510. These two panes were
covered by flat roofs, as they still are in part. The northwest bay was vaulted, as was probably the whole of the
west pane. (fn. 73) In the north pane, in the bay next to the
north-east angle, there is an armarium recess of the 13th
century, formerly rich work but now much mutilated.
It takes the place of one contemporary with the wall, of
which there is a fragment in place. The cloister garth
now forms the deanery garden. Some of the floor joists
in the Deanery are probably made up from roof timbers
of the cloister. (fn. 74)
PLAN OF ELY CATHEDRAL AND PRIORY
From the east pane there was originally a passage to
the monks' cemetery, with a doorway into the transept.
The passage was converted into a chapel of St. Catherine,
and was vaulted early in the 13th century. Next to this
passage was the chapter house, of which only parts of
the foundations remain. Excavations in 1892 showed
that it measured about 76 ft. by 34 ft. It had been
demolished by 1649. (fn. 75) All the dorter range has disappeared except for one of the late-12th-century columns
with the springing of the vault of the undercroft, near
the north end. Of the frater only the lower part of the
south wall remains. This was built in the 13th century.
It contains evidence, at the east end, of the staircase up
to the lectern, and there are the shafts, with foliaged
capitals, of a wall arcade. The frater measured 110 by
35 ft. To the south of it there are massive remains of
the Norman kitchen, consisting of about two-thirds of
its south and west walls. These survived when the rest
was destroyed during the Commonwealth because they
had been used as end walls for the guest hall and its
buttery, later part of the Deanery. The south wall contains a very large round-headed window, now blocked,
and two clustered responds with cushion caps. These
must have carried arches to support the roof, which may
have included a stone lantern in the centre, like the one
remaining at Glastonbury.
Behind the kitchen was a large guest hall, (fn. 76) 80 by
30 ft., consisting of five bays and raised on a vaulted
undercroft. The undercroft is divided by a row of
columns down its length and by a wall separating the
western pair of bays from the others. The vaulting of
the western bays, without intermediate or ridge ribs, is
earlier than that of the rest, which has these features and
is particularly fine. The guest hall itself has a 14thcentury open timber roof with arched principals springing from corbels with fine crouching figures. The
building dates from the 13th century, and was reconstructed during the 14th. It has a porch of complicated
plan, forming entry to (a) the hall itself, (b) the undercroft, (c) the prior's guest hall. The building has been
cut up into several stories to form what was once the
Deanery and is now the Bishop's House. On the ground
floor the doorway leading to the former buttery (now
the kitchen) retains its original 14th-century woodwork
and ironwork. The study at the west end of the ground
floor has a stone party wall, on the line of the one in the
undercroft; all the other party walls are of timber. The
rooms over the entrance porch were probably in monastic times the offices of certain obedientiaries; after the
Dissolution they were used as an audit chamber and later
by the registrar. Dean Pearce (1797-1820) replaced
them by a Georgian drawing-room, whose sash windows were removed to make room for mullioned ones
from Landwade Hall inserted by Dean Goodwin
(1858-69). (fn. 77) The east wall of the Deanery, which was
of modern brick, was rebuilt in stone between 1858 and
1862 by Styleman le Strange, who designed the north
window of the drawing-room. (fn. 78)
To the south of the guest hall was the prior's house,
now the Eighth Canonry. It has an early-12th-century
vaulted undercroft, but the hall itself was rebuilt by
Prior Crauden in the first quarter of the 14th century
and the windows are later still. It has a good roof of the
14th century, over the hall, which is of 'curb' or mansard type, like those of the transepts of the cathedral.
There is a fine fireplace, the only remaining fragment of
the prior's study, an interesting timber building demolished in 1883 before its antiquity was realized. Portions
of its screenwork are preserved in the north pane of the
cloister. The most remarkable feature of the house is
the chapel built by Crauden between 1321 and 1341.
Raised on an undercroft to the level of the hall, it was
reached by a bridge from the main building. It has been
much restored, having become very much mutilated and
almost ruinous since the Dissolution. The flowing tracery of the main windows is particularly fine, and there
are low-side windows; also a curious contemporary tile
pavement with a picture of the Fall, and faint remains
of a painting of the Crucifixion. The internal arrangements of the house have been much altered, and the
entrance door has been moved from the west to the east
side. Some restoration seems also to have taken place in
the last years of the monastery, many of the existing
windows dating from the early 16th century.
The space between the prior's house and the guest
hall was filled by the prior's kitchen. There are remains
of two of its three large fireplaces; the third is intact but
blocked. From the east side of the kitchen there ran a
large hall, about 75 ft. by 37 ft., on the ground story, of
the side walls of which there are remains. This seems to
have been at the same time the prior's great hall and the
misericord, there being entrances on both sides, on the
north for the monks and on the south for the laity.
The porches of these entrances are the chief architectural
remains of this hall; the one on the south has several
square-headed windows with cusped sub-arches, probably late 13th century, and an early-16th-century fireplace in cut brickwork on its upper floor. The hall may
almost certainly be identified with the 'Bougre', a name
peculiar to Ely. Attached to it was the' knights' lodging',
the sleeping chamber of the prior's squires or knights,
who dined in the great hall; it probably stood over the
gateway leading to the cloister. (fn. 79)
West of the prior's house and formerly connected
with it by a bridge stands the 'Queen's hall', built by
Crauden for the reception of Queen Philippa about
1330. (fn. 80) It still stands almost perfect, on a vaulted undercroft, but has been cut up internally to make a house for
the headmaster of the King's School. The undercroft is
in two parts. The northern, of three bays, has very thick
walls, but the upper stories have been destroyed. The
southern part, of four bays, supports the hall itself,
which was 47 ft. long by 20 ft. wide, and, with a height
of about 22 ft. to the tie-beam, unusually lofty. Its fireplace, on the west side, is blocked, but the corbelling of
the chimney-stack may still be seen on the former outside wall. The great south window, and two on the east
side, survive, with attractive tracery. The corbels of the
low-pitched roof are similar to those of the guest hall
(Deanery) roof; subsequent to the Reformation the
original leaded roof was replaced by a tiled one of high
pitch, providing an extra story. Attached to the south
end of the Queen's hall is a long range of 12th-century
granaries and storehouses, now used by the school. This
was converted in the 14th century into a two-storied
building by the introduction of vaulting, the upper floor
forming chambers for guests, and about the same time
it was prolonged southwards. It has been mutilated in
detail but not radically altered. Traces of the original
round-headed lancets, cut across by the 14th-century
vaulting, exist in the east wall of the northern half, and
the 14th-century windows to both floors remain on the
west (street) side. The 14th-century extension to the
south has also been much altered by modern windows
on the east side, but retains its original covered outside
staircase to the upper floor. The internal arrangements
are probably entirely modern. (fn. 81)
To the east of the cloister are the extensive remains
of the large infirmary, now forming, with some additions, the Second, Third, Fifth, and Sixth Canonries,
and a Minor Canon's House. The infirmary was approached through the undercroft of the dorter, and
thence through a long vaulted passage of the 13th century called the 'Dark Cloister', of which the south wall
still stands. This exhibits good mid-13th-century work,
but the vaulting and upper story have entirely disappeared. The Norman infirmary consisted of a large
nave with aisles, forming the hall, and an aisled chapel
with a vaulted chancel, the whole being about 175 ft.
long. The nave is now roofless and forms a blind lane
between houses, in the walls of which can be seen the
blocked arcades of the 12th-century hall. These are
elaborate work, with fine enrichments on the arches and
interesting scalloped capitals; they date from about
1175. The walls which block the arcades are medieval,
for during the 14th century the aisles were cut off from
the nave and divided into two stories and into separate
rooms.
At the south-west corner of the hall there stands a
projecting wing, now the Sixth Canonry House, consisting of a 12th-century building of two stories. The
lower one, with a barrel vault, was probably the infirmary kitchen, the whole building being known as the
'cellarer's lodging'. Large modern additions have been
made to the house on the south and west, but there remains a 16th-century fireplace in the east wall of the
first floor, and the roof is probably medieval. As in so
many cases at Ely it has been ceiled underneath and
attics introduced.
Another wing to the east of the above and parallel
with it was added early in the 13th century for the
accommodation of visiting monks from other Benedictine houses. Hence it was called the 'Black Hostry';
it is now the Third Canonry House. It also is of two
stories, the lower one subdivided and vaulted; the upper
story, forming a hall, has its original open-timber roof.
The vaulted lower floor retains two original windows
on the east side, of two lights with plate tracery. In the
southern of the two dividing walls is an ingenious threeway serving-hatch of medieval date. The upper story is
timber-framed on the east and south sides. The present
oriel window near the north-east corner is modern, but
probably reproduces a medieval feature. There is a very
fine 15th-century brick chimney-stack, with three octagonal chimney shafts, at the south end. The chimneystacks at the north end of the main block of this house,
and on the east wing, are probably 17th century, with
blind arches in moulded brickwork. This latter wing
forms part of the south aisle of the infirmary hall and
chapel. It was converted in the 15th century into two
sets of rooms, the lower being occupied at the Dissolution by the cellarer. (fn. 82) The windows are modern but a
15th-century fireplace remains on the first floor.
The Fifth Canonry House is largely modern, but incorporates the chancel of the infirmary chapel, which
has a vault and other excellent late 12th-century details,
and a house of uncertain medieval date which stood
south of the chancel and was in 1541 occupied by the
sub-prior.
The north aisle of the infirmary was taken down,
probably about 1320, and replaced by a wider building
of two stories, each containing several rooms. The use
of these rooms is not known, but many persons, including the convent's physician, (fn. 83) were lodged in and about
the infirmary. In the 19th century this wing was called
the 'blood-letting house', (fn. 84) but that seems to have been
south of the infirmary chapel and detached. All the
windows of the north aisle have been altered, but fragments of the original are preserved in each case, so that
'the whole design can be recovered. A timber-framed
top story was added, probably early in the 16th century,
making a three-story building-an unusual feature at
Ely. It retains its original roof, and some exposed beams
on the north side. This building is now the house of
one of the minor canons.
About 1335 Alan of Walsingham, then sacrist, built
a wing extending northwards from the north-east corner
of the infirmary hall; this is now the Second Canonry
House. It is of two stories, the lower one vaulted.
Walsingham stipulated that he was to have the use of
it for life, but the house, or at least the ground floor,
was also to be a place where the brethren might see their
women relatives. It was called the 'painted chamber'.
The building still stands almost complete, but has been
a good deal restored, not always correctly. The almost
flat roof, if original, is somewhat unusual for its date.
The buttresses, which splay outwards to meet the wall
at an oblique angle, are of an exceptional form.
A little distance to the south of the infirmary was the
chamberlain's checker, of which building only two fragments remain, embedded in the garden walls of the
Third Canonry House. It contained store-rooms for
clothing and the laundry; in close connexion with it was
the bath house.
To the east of the church stood the outer hostelry,
the foundations of which may be traced on the turf in
a dry summer. It was a self-contained establishment
with its own chapel, and was perhaps used chiefly by
the commercial classes, standing as it did fairly near the
river, which in the Middle Ages carried a good deal of
traffic between Cambridge and Lynn. A wall running
from the south-east angle of the church, which existed
until the present pathway was made round the east end
of the cathedral about 1854, was probably connected
with the ostium versus cimeterium monachorum, a gate
near the outer hostelry dividing the more public part
of the monastery from the monks' own quarters. (fn. 85)
Along the High Street, to the north of the monastery,
was another range of buildings. The easternmost was
the almonry, still intact though much altered internally
and with modern windows on the north towards the
street. The lower story has vaulting dating from the
end of the 12th century. The blocked lancet windows
in the east wall suggest that the almonry chapel, which
was dedicated to St. Martin, was at this end. (fn. 86) The
almonry included a school for the boys who took part
in the Lady Chapel services. To the east or the west
of it was a gateway, now destroyed, referred to as porta
monachorum.
Farther west was the sacrist's office (the building
department of the monastery) greatly enlarged by Alan
of Walsingham in c. 1325. (fn. 87) It also had a gateway from
the street, but both range and gateway have been completely remodelled. The room over the gateway was
converted into the dean and chapter muniment room
under Dean Goodwin (1858-69); the muniments had
previously been housed in the canons' vestry. To make
the room fire-proof a stone floor and vaulted roof were
inserted, heat being provided by running the flue of the
porter's lodge fireplace behind the wall; 'it [i.e. this
heating system] has ... turned out to be a failure'. (fn. 88)
At the west end of the sacristy range is a square building. Here the goldsmith retained by the monastery had
his workshop on the ground floor and the sacrist his
counting-board on the upper. It is said that the third
story was added during the reign of Elizabeth, (fn. 89) when
the building was converted into a bell tower for the use
of the parishioners of Holy Trinity worshipping in the
Lady Chapel. Beyond the goldsmith's workshop was
the lay cemetery, fringed along the street with tenements belonging to the bishop. Half-way along the row
was a tower gateway into the cemetery, which with two
tenements on each side was the property of the prior
and convent. The present gateway is of timber, and
dates from the close of the Middle Ages. It has long
been known as 'Stepil Gate', and from it High Street
was called 'Stepil Row'. Under the gateway and the
house to the east there are vaulted cellars of c. 1330.
Adjoining the gateway on the south-east was a bonehouse, in which were deposited any bones disturbed in
digging graves, with a chapel of St. Peter over it. The
north wall of this building still stands to a considerable
height and seems to date from the middle of the 14th
century. If so, it replaces an earlier building, for the
statutes of 1300 order that the pyx containing the Body
of Christ and the oil for the dying shall be kept 'in
capella nova juxta vetus campanile situata'-clearly a
provision for the parishioners, for whom it would be
conveniently situated. It was apparently this steeple
which was taken down in 1354-5 at a cost of 7s. 8d. (fn. 90)
It may be that this tower served the parish when the
cathedral nave was used as the parish church, and would
not be required if the new church on the north of the
nave had a bell-cote. Judging by the small expense of
its demolition, it was of timber. (fn. 91)
The last group of monastic buildings to be noted
includes the great gateway known as Ely Porta and the
two-story range running east and west along the south
side of the courtyard entered through the Porta. This
gateway was begun in 1397 and finished about 1405;
its designer was John Mepsale or Meppushall, the then
architect of the convent. (fn. 92) It is of three stories. The
outside has hardly been altered, except for the substitution of a high-pitched tiled roof for a lead flat and,
almost certainly, of the present low plain parapet for
high battlements. (fn. 93) The chief architectural features of
the simple but effective façades are the three-light
traceried windows in the centre of the top floor, flanked
on the west by four empty niches, and the boldly projecting square turrets at each corner. The entrance,
with a large and a small arch, is flanked by rooms,
formerly a porter's lodge, on the south (fn. 94) and a prison
on the north. The carriage way reaches up through
two floors, there being two rooms, over the porter's
lodge and the prison, on the first floor, and three on the
top floor, the centre one over the archway. The three
top floor rooms have been thrown into one as a classroom for the King's School. The whole of the upper
floors were in monastic times given over to the offices
for manorial business.
The range south of the courtyard contained storerooms at the west end and granaries at the east. It dates
from about 1375 and preserves most of its original
features, including traces of an outside staircase on the
north side. The passage through the centre, judging by
the arches at its ends, dates from about 1475. The
cottage south-west of this range is medieval, but all
architectural features have been altered except one roof
truss. It was probably occupied by the storeman; in
middle of the 19th century it was called 'The Hermitage'. (fn. 95)
The monastic grange, commonly called the SEXTRY
BARN, lay to the west of St. Mary's churchyard. (fn. 96) The
barn was a stone building 219 ft. 6 in. long by 39 ft. 5 in.
wide internally. It was divided into nave and aisles by
two rows of oak posts on stone bases, ten on each side,
and was covered by a continuous roof, the nave being
thatched and the aisles tiled. There were two large
doorways on the north side, the eastern of which had
a large threshing-porch with an upper story. The building, which appears to have dated from the middle of the
13th century, was destroyed in 1842.
In front of the grange was a yard surrounded by a
wall built in 1302-3 at a cost of £7 18s. 1d. In the
north-east corner of the yard stood, and still stands, the
house of the steward, now ST. MARY'S VICARAGE
but commonly called CROMWELL HOUSE. (fn. 97) The
office of tithe-collector or steward to the priory and later
to the chapter became hereditary in a family which
assumed the name of Steward or Styward. In their time
the house was probably enlarged. The last of these
Stewards was Sir Thomas (d. 1636), the maternal uncle
of Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell succeeded to the titheoffice in 1636 and lived in the house for the next ten
years. (fn. 98) Farmers of the capitular tithe continued to
occupy the house until 1840 when the office was abolished under the Tithe Commutation Act of 1836. The
house was sold by the dean and chapter in 1843. It
changed hands several times, at one period being used
as an inn-the Cromwell Arms. It was bought by the
Revd. E. G. Punchard, D.D., Vicar of St. Mary's, in
1905 and bequeathed to the chapter for use as a vicarage.
The house has a lower story of stone and brick and
a timber-framed upper story with a reed and clay filling.
The roofs are tiled and the chimney-stacks are of brick.
It is probably of late-15th-century origin, and was enlarged and altered about a century later. The original
plan was apparently L-shaped with the main block
facing north, as now, and a wing at the south-east angle.
Early in the 17th century another wing was added on
the south-west and a connecting gallery added at the
back of the main block. Sash windows and various internal alterations were effected, probably in the 18th
century. On the acquisition of the house for a vicarage
a thorough restoration was effected and the sash windows replaced by leaded lights with wooden mullions;
at the same time the west wing was extended and many
of the minor timbers were renewed. The east wing has
massive 16th-century buttresses of brick and ashlar.
The tops of the chimney-stacks have been much renewed, except that of the kitchen in the east wing,
which is of 16th-century date. Only one old fireplace
is visible; it is in the first floor room of the west wing
and has plain chamfered jambs of stone and a chamfered wooden lintel. The drawing-room at the east end
of the main block has early 17th-century oak panelling,
which has been partly renewed in pine. The ground
floor of the west wing- has similar panelling, but less
complete. The staircase retains its wooden newel post,
but the treads have been renewed. At the back of the
upper part of the main block is an original three-light
window with wooden mullions and iron stanchions,
now blocked. In the study at the west end of the main
block is a plain two-light stone window, possibly medieval, which now looks into the west wing. Several of the
rooms retain their oak floor boarding. At the north-west
angle of the main block is the jamb of a large gateway
of Barnack stone.
The BISHOP'S PALACE (fn. 99) stands quite close to
the west end of the cathedral, from which it is separated
by the street called the Gallery, (fn. 1) and on the south side
of what was the village green of the original settlement
at Ely. It consists of a three-sided court facing north,
with a long gallery running west from the north-west
corner of this. The building is entirely of brick. The
most striking features are the two towers of four stories,
terminating the wings of the courtyard. The eastern of
these, that nearest the cathedral, was built by Bishop
Alcock (1486-1500) as a gateway tower. In its north
face was the entrance, probably a large and a small archway like Ely Porta; the large arch would have been
under the group of three niches which still remain. The
gateway passage, now enclosed to form a room, has a
handsome vault; on the west was the porter's lodge, and
in the back wall a single arch still remains.
The gateway tower was flanked on each side by a
narrow wing. That on the east was short and was
pierced by an archway through which the road ran.
From the end of this wing a narrow raised gallery gave
the bishop a private covered way to the church through
a 12th-century doorway still to be seen in the south wall
of the south-west transept. The gateway tower, the east
wing, the covered way, and the west end of the church
are shown in a painting preserved in the palace of the
funeral of Bishop Cox (1581); in this picture the positions of the buildings are reversed, and it is more easily
understood if looked at in a mirror. The three-storied
west wing seems to have included the present western
tower, and at that point to have turned south to form
a wide main building containing the hall and other
apartments.
An important addition was made to Alcock's palace
by Bishop Goodrich (1534-54), who built a long west
gallery in 1549-50. This is on the upper floor, its
windows looking northwards upon the Green. It was
originally carried on a loggia with open arches towards
the south, but these have been blocked and the loggia
converted into kitchen offices. It appears that when this
gallery was built the western tower was remodelled to
match Alcock's gateway tower.
The present house is principally the work of Bishop
Laney (1667-75). He took down almost the whole of
Alcock's work, leaving probably nothing but the two
towers, and closed the gateway in the east tower. He
planned his building to form a three-sided court, using
the towers to terminate the wings. Along the three
sides of the court was a one-story corridor, which in the
19th century received sham Tudor windows. The
house itself is a fine brick building, a good example of
the architecture of its time, with a high hipped roof.
The interior was remodelled by Bishop Keene in 1771,
when the upper story was probably added to Laney's
corridor. The stable range is probably of Bishop Goodrich's time, and has reused fragments of Norman
windows.
The palace is now used as a school for crippled girls.
Bishop Northwold founded in 1250 a chantry of four
priests to sing masses for the souls of Henry III, Queen
Eleanor and their children, and of the bishops of Ely,
the monks, and their benefactors. He provided for them
a yearly stipend of 20 marks and a hostel in which to
live, on the green at the west end of the cathedral,
whence it was called the Chantry-on-the-Green. It is
mentioned in the extent of 1251 and frequently in
subsequent documents. (fn. 2) At the Dissolution in 1548 the
value of the chantry was £21 15s. yearly. (fn. 3) The building
clearly stood actually on the green and was in fact an
encroachment on the common. The exact spot seems
to have been the east side of the group of houses to the
south of St. Mary's Street. Bishop Wren, in whose time
the buildings were still in existence, (fn. 4) describes it as
'right against the gate of the demolished palace', Bentham as being on the site of 'the house of the late John
Waddington Esq', and Stewart as 'on the site of a house
now in occupation of J. Muriel Esq.' An 18th-century
house now occupies the site.