Monument record 368/4/1 - Nunnery buildings

{1} The present church is probably on the site of the priory church and the conventual buildings would have been to the south of it. Maps of 18th and 19th century date and surviving illustrations of the house, which seems to have incorporated at least part of the cloister range, lend support to this supposition.

{2} The earliest buildings within the precinct may have been of timber, many were destroyed by fire in 1251.
Further indulgences were granted in 1301 to reconstruct the priory church, and for paving the cloisters in
1312. Near the church and enclosed by a stone wall was the cemetery. From the evidence to hand, it is
possible that the cloister was south of the church, with a chapter house in the east range and a refectory in
the south range over a vaulted undercroft which survived until 1849, and was incorporated into Catesby
Abbey, the mansion built on the site of the Priory. Payments to masons suggest that the buildings were
latterly built of stone; the chapter house, the cloister and the gallery facing the prioresses hall were roofed
with tiles. Reference to St Edmund’s Hall, presumably where high ranking visitors were received, as having
expensive cloth covering the table, indicate that it was a prestigious building, rebuilt in 1453-4 perhaps as an
independent structure. A new kitchen was built at the same time; Laughton suggests that it was located close
to the mill, bakehouse and brewhouse. As a double house, buildings were also provided for the canons, lay
brothers and their master, including a master’s stables and chamber, a canons’ dorter, hall and chapel.
Documents do not indicate where the canons’ buildings were located, but it has been suggested that they lay
to the south of the precinct close to the mill leat. A number of agricultural buildings stood within the precinct
including stables; cart sheds; housing for oxen, cattle and pigs and barns. In the early C15, there was a horse
mill within the precinct, two water mills (upper and lower) and there may have been a fishery, possibly located
outside of the precinct.

<1> Royal Commission on The Historical Monuments of England, 1981, An Inventory of The Historical Monuments in The County of Northampton, p.40 site 4 (checked) (Series). SNN77381.

<2> Historic England, 2015, Designation Assessment: Medieval settlement at Lower Catesby, p. 8 (Designation Advice Report). SNN110113.

Record last edited

Sep 14 2015 12:06PM