roxburgh-1956-vol-2/-05_057

Transcription

No. 567 -- MELROSE PARISH -- No. 567

centuries. As in the apartment farther S., rib-
vaulting was inserted in the frater towards the turn
of the 13th and 14th centuries-four bays long and
two wide. The vaulting received intermediate
support from a central row of circular pillars resting
on high, simply moulded bases. To make way for
the S. respond of these pillars, the E. half of the
partition between the frater and the apartment on its
S. side was demolished, the apartment becoming, as
it were, an annexe of the frater. But the opening was
closed up eventually, probably when the conversi had
ceased to exist as a class within the community, since
a platform was now raised against the E. wall of the
frater for the purpose of containing a continuous
water-trough, used presumably for some industrial
purpose, such as the scouring of wool.
The outer parlour has a doorway at either end, the
one to the W. sufficiently large to require a two-leaved
door. On the N. side is a lobby which may have
contained the day-stair to the conversi dorter ; there
is, at any rate, room both for a stair and for passage
beside it. A doorway, made up on one side with old
material, leads off the N. side of the lobby into a
corridor running N. between the undercroft of the
conversi reredorter on the one hand and the kitchen
on the other. Into this corridor opens the serving-
hatch previously mentioned (p. 285) ; it had two
doors, one on the passage side, the other one opening
to the kitchen. Farther N. a secondary doorway on
the opposite side of the passage gives access to the
undercroft of the reredorter. This undercroft is
fragmentary-on the S. a single door-jamb survives
to mark the position of the original entrance, the only
recognisable feature. Above the apartments just
described there was an upper storey containing the
dorter and reredorter of the conversi.
In the primary arrangement the W. range did not
extend N. of the reredorter and passage. But, like
the E. range, it was extended N. in the 13th century.
This extension overrides the main sewer of the
abbey and comes to within 60 ft. of the mill-lade.
Thus, when it had been completed, the W. range had
a total length of about 358 ft., abnormal in comparison
with the cellarium of Culross (198 ft.), Newbattle
(178 ft.), and Kirkstall and Rievaulx (both 170 ft.),
but not greatly larger than that of Fountains (302 ft.).
The extension was made from the reredorter and its
side walls do not run in continuation of those of the
primary W. range. The S. end, which runs below
Cloister Road, has yet to be explored.
The undercroft of the extension, the cellarium
broper, was built in easy stages-the distribution of
puilding-stones suggested to the officers of the Geo-
logical Survey (p. 269) that the four southernmost
bays were more recent than the remainder, being
constructed " predominantly of sandstone, whereas
the northern portion is built chiefly of agglomerate,
as is the case with the other buildings of the early
period ". On the other hand the N. end of the
building, the part that extends beyond the main
sewer, seems an obvious addition. When first built
this cellarium was not vaulted, but at some time after
the middle of the 13th century quadripartite rib-
vaulting was inserted-two bays wide and fourteen
long. The vault had intermediate support from a
central row of circular pillars which rested on high
bases, chamfered on the upper surface. To stabilise
this vault, buttresses, which include in their masonry
stones previously used elsewhere, were added to the
side walls of the cellarium ; but despite their provision
the vault fell vertically and, when the cellarium was
explored, the components of the vault were found
upon the floor, the stout chamfered ribs lying in
correct relationship to the rubble webs.
The cellarium was probably divided into two or
more compartments from the beginning, and cer-
tainly was so at the time when vaulting was introduced
as there are differences in the levels of the pier bases.
But the walls have been so greatly reduced that few
particulars of the arrangement are now apparent.
In the second bay from the S. the W. wall contains a
re-used 13th-century window-sill, heavily chamfered
and checked and placed back to front ; farther N.
there are slight traces of a window which opened to
the E. ; and in the fifth bay from the N. the W. wall
shows the remains of a large fireplace-presumably
an insertion. Towards the close of the monastic
occupation an oven was introduced into the S. half
of the cellarium. A little to the N. of this a lead water-
pipe may be seen sunk in the floor, running from W.
to E. There is another pipe near the N. end of the
cellarium, running N. apparently to discharge into a
square ashlar-lined cistern sunk in the floor at the
NW. corner. The roof of the cellarium was tiled,
the tiles having nibs or projections by which they
hung from the tiling-battens.
The cellarium in its turn eventually received an
addition-a cross-hall having been attached to its
NW. corner in the 14th century. Although this is
a very late date for such a building, this hall may
have been the conversi infirmary ; on the other hand
it may have been a new reredorter. It takes the form
of a nave with side aisles, of which the four E. bays
only have been exposed.1 This building extends
farther N. than the gable of the cellarium and the
main sewer runs below it along the axial line. It was
unvaulted. The entrance was in the S. wall. In
the floor of the S. aisle there is a tank in three com-
partments, built for the most part of tiles and finished
off with rounded curbs of plaster. This tank is
presumably an insertion.
Melrose is the only Scottish abbey in which remains
of the conversi cloister can be seen. This cloister
has already been mentioned (p. 285) as lying on the
W. side of the W. range and separated from it by
an alley. Its back or S. wall runs W. in continuation
of the N. wall of the church for a distance of 70 ft.
beyond the 12th-century W. gable, and there turns

1 At Fountains the conversi infirmary is six bays long.

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