Cathedral Treasury, Vestry and Library Gloucester, England

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GLOUCESTER

SO8318NW CATHEDRAL PRECINCTS 844-1/8/46 Cathedral Treasury, Vestry and 23/01/52 Library (Formerly Listed as: CATHEDRAL PRECINCTS Cathedral Church of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity)

GV I

Cathedral treasury and cathedral library. c1100, late C12 and C14, restored in C19 and C20. Ashlar and rubble, gabled stone slate roof. PLAN: a single width range between the north transept of the church of the former Benedictine Abbey of St Peter, now the Cathedral Church (qv), and the Chapter House (qv); originally a wide, vaulted passage or slype of c1100 which led from the east alley of the Cathedral Cloister (qv) to the former monastic cemetery to the east of the east claustral range; the passage extended further to the east in C14 when the vestry and library above were built above the passage, with a staircase to the library entered from the cloister at the north-west corner; the former passage, originally open at either end, now used as the cathedral treasury and entered from the north transept though a small doorway formed in 1978. EXTERIOR: three storeys. At the west end a wide archway infilled in C14 when the Cloister was rebuilt; in C19 the blocking pierced for a small doorway on the west side, above the lean-to roof of the cloister; in the gable-end of the range on the first floor a C16 six-light window with flat head, and on the second floor a seven-light arched window with arched lights above and below a transom; in the east gable-end wall at ground-floor level a doorway with a five-light window above the arch and on the upper floors a large seven-light panelled window similar to the window at the west end but with a row of blind panels at second-floor level; at second-floor level on the north side eleven windows each of two lights with square heads. INTERIOR: the original passage of c1100 has a plain, plastered barrel vault, continuous blind arcading of fifteen bays along the north wall and similar arcading between the pilaster buttresses of the north transept wall which forms the south side of the passage, the arcading has shafts with moulded bases, scalloped capitals, and plain arches; the C14 eastern extension of the passage has plain walls and barrel vault; on the first floor the vestry is entered from a staircase in the

north-west corner of the transept, (not inspected); on the second floor the library has an open timber roof, the trusses with moulded tie-beams supported on timber corbels, each finely carved with a head wearing a crown or a hat, and exposed purlins and rafters; the windows on the north side originally lit carrels or study bays. Originally the monastic library, the second floor was used as the first school room of the King's School until mid C19 when refitted as the cathedral library. (Welander D: The History, Art and Architecture of Gloucester Cathedral: Stroud, Gloucestershire: 1991-; VCH: The City of Gloucester: Oxford: 1988-: 277; BOE: Verey D: Gloucestershire: The Vale and the Forest of Dean: London: 1976-: 221).

Listing NGR: SO8313318804