Cleeve Abbey - Abbey Buildings

Abbey Buildings

Work immediately began on constructing the abbey church, a task that took many decades. It was a conservative design, heavily influenced by the thoughts of St. Bernard and the order's early churches in its homeland of Burgundy. It was cruciform in shape with an aisled nave of seven bays, a short, square east end, and transepts each with two side chapels. The eastern parts of the church were built first, and were likely finished in 1232, at which point the abbey received a royal donation of oak to build choir stalls. The remainder was probably completed by mid-century.

To the south of the church a cloister was laid out, surrounded by the domestic buildings of the house. The east range, which was completed first (probably by around 1250), held the chapter house, sacristy, the monks' dormitory, day room, and reredorter (latrine). The south range was built next, it contained the kitchens, warming house and a 19.7 m long refectory which projected south beyond the main body of the building, a classic Cistercian plan. It is suggested from the heraldry used in the tiled floors of the refectory that it was finished at the end of the thirteenth century. The final part to be finished was the small west range, which was used for storage and quarters for the lay brothers. East of the core buildings, and linked to them, was a second cloister around which was the monastic infirmary.

The monastery would have been surrounded by gardens, fishponds, orchards, barns, guesthouses, stables, a farmyard and industrial buildings. The abbey grounds were defended by a water filled moat and a gatehouse. Excavation has revealed that a large stone cross, like a market cross, stood just west of the main building.

Though Cleeve was by no means a wealthy house, the monks were able to make significant investment in remodelling their home so as to match the rising living standards of the later mediaeval period. In the fourteenth century elaborate polychrome tiled floors (an expensive and high status product) were laid throughout the abbey and in the mid-fifteenth century radical works were undertaken. Abbot David Juyner (r. 1435–87) commissioned a complete redesign of the south range of the monastery. He demolished the old refectory and built a new one parallel to the cloister on the first floor. This grand chamber with its wooden vaulted ceiling (carved with angels) was the equal of the hall of any contemporary secular lord. Beneath it he built several self-contained apartments. These were probably used by corrodians, pensioners of the abbey. Juyner may also have been responsible for decorating the abbey with wall paintings of religious and allegorical subjects. Some of these wall paintings survive. As well as one depicting the Crucifixion, there is an arrangement of St Catherine and St Margaret on either side of, and facing, a man standing on a bridge: the bridge is over water full of fish, and the man has an angel on either side of his head, and is being attacked by a lion to his left on the bridge, and a dragon to his right. Work continued under Juyner's successors right up until the eve of the Dissolution. The last building work to be completed was the remodelling of the gatehouse, performed after 1510, though as late as 1534 the monks were engaged in a major project of renewing the cloister walks in the latest fashion. As at the neighbouring house of Forde Abbey, this was never completed, due to the dissolution of the abbey.