York Guides

Alongside the south transept the east range of claustral buildings is pierced by a ground-floor passage leading from the cloister to the yard and sacristy south of the presbytery. This passage now extends the full width of the transept, but in the early twelfth century it was shorter, being closed by a wall just east of the doorway into the transept. At this time it was also subdivided by a partition into an eastern part used as a sacristy, with a doorway into the transept, and a western part used as a library, with a doorway into the cloister. Later in the twelfth century the partition and the east wall were taken down, and a new east wall with a doorway was built as a continuation southwards of the wall of the transept chapels. The five eastern bays of the passage were then provided with a ribbed vault, but the western bay has a half-barrel vault supporting the night-stairs to the dormitory above.

After the dissolution, the passage was filled with human bones, estimated to represent at least 400 skeletons and probably coming from graves ransacked in the church and the cemetery. Its east and west doorways were then walled up. They were re-opened in 1854, when the bones were taken away and reburied.