York Guides

There is some evidence of an intention at this time to build a reredorter in the normal position at the south-east of the dorter, but it is not certain that this was ever finished. The subvault had a line of open arches on the east, a construction which occurs also in the lay brothers' reredorter, and may be seen at Furness and Fountains Abbeys. It is to be presumed that the arches were filled in with timber framing, as it is hardly likely that they stood open to the weather. In the fifteenth century a range of rooms with fireplaces was built on to the cast side of the subvault, which was itself cut up by cross walls. Jervaulx Abbey shows a similar treatment, and these rooms may have been made to accommodate the holders of corrodics (Those who had insured for their maintenance in old age by giving a capital sum to a monastery).