Cathedral Chapter House Gloucester, England

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GLOUCESTER

SO8318NW CATHEDRAL PRECINCTS 844-1/8/41 Cathedral Chapter House 23/01/52 (Formerly Listed as: CATHEDRAL PRECINCTS Cathedral Church of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity)

GV I

The chapter house of the former Benedictine Priory of St Peter, now the chapter house of the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity (qv). c1100, largely rebuilt late C12, and altered c1380. Ashlar, stone slate roof with coped gables. PLAN: a large chamber on the east side of the Cathedral Cloister (qv) between the Treasury and the Cathedral Library (qv) to the south, and the site of the former dormitory of the abbey to the north; three C12 bays originally with an apsidal east end, the apse replaced in the C15 by a fourth bay with canted sides; the entrance at the west end from the east alley of the cloister remodelled in C15; projecting into the north-west corner the stair to the library; remains of stair to dorter on north side. EXTERIOR: above the roof of the east alley of the cathedral cloister the west gable-end wall with a C12 window of three large, stepped, semi-circular arched lights slightly recessed below a segmental relieving arch, nook shafts with cushion capitals to the jambs and mullions and moulded arches with chevron enrichment to the arch of the central light; in the east gable-end wall a large nine-light window with Perpendicular tracery panels, a central transom and foiled arched heads to the lights below and above the transom. At the north-east corner the stub of the south wall of the former adjoining monastic dormitory with the moulded jamb of a window decorated with ball flower. INTERIOR: above a continuous, high ashlar plinth the three C12 bays are defined by wall shafts with scalloped capitals and transverse ribs to the pointed barrel vault with a pair of shafts and ribs at the east end of the east bay; between the wall shafts in each bay a tall dado of three bays of blank arcading capped by a string course, the two eastern arches of the arcading in the east bay on each side have chevron moulding; the C15 canted east bay is faced with Perpendicular arched panels similar to or extending the pattern of panels in the east window, wall shafts at the corners of the bay support

an elaborate lierne vault with carved bosses. The east bay had to be canted outwards so that the NE and SE corners of the east elevation were supported on the Romanesque crypt walls below, the C14 east window replacing the C12 apse. Evidence of early Romanesque pier left visible in the second pier from the NE corner at Tribune level. (Welander D: The History, Art and Architecture of Gloucester Cathedral: Stroud, Gloucestershire: 1991-; VCH: The City of Gloucester: Oxford: 1988-: 227; BOE: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and the Forest of Dean: London: 1976-: 221).

Listing NGR: SO8313518814