York Guides

The west range of the claustral buildings is the largest of its kind in Europe, 300 ft long and vaulted in 22 double bays from a central line of piers from which the ribs spring without capitals. It was used for the bulk stores of the convent, and for the accommodation of the lay-brethren who, in this position, were in direct contact with their work in the great court.

The early twelfth-century west range was much smaller than the present one, being only some 25 ft wide but extending as far south as the river. When the northern part of the range was remodelled later in the twelfth century in the form in which we now see it, the old east wall was retained but a new west wall was built farther out to give the building a width of 42 ft. The doorways and windows in these northern thirteen bays have round heads, and the buttresses are half-octagons. At the end of the twelfth century the range was extended southwards by another nine bays, its southern end being carried right across the river on four vaulted tunnels. In this part of the building the windows have pointed heads and the buttresses are rectangular. The whole range was vaulted at this later date, and buttresses were added on the cloister side of the early east wall to abut this new vault.

Despite these differences of detail, the range has a general uniformity of style that belies its complex building history. The great uninterrupted expanse of the ground floor, today providing one of the most famous views in the abbey, is also deceptive in its unity, for it originally served a number of different purposes and was divided by several cross-walls that were not demolished until the abbey fell into ruin.

One of these cross-walls shut off the two northern bays from the rest, forming a room of which the central part is taken up by a great block of masonry pierced by two arches that support the lay-brethren's night-stairs above. In the early twelfth century this room was an outer parlour giving access from the great court to the cloister, and it had a doorway of this date in the middle of its east wall. Later in the century, when the range has widened and the night-stairs were put in, this doorway was blocked because it fell inconveniently behind the central pier of the stair block, but the room retained its old function and was provided with a new east doorway in the south bay. Very late in the Middle Ages it ceased to be used as a parlour, and this second doorway was blocked.