The presbytery consists of four bays. The piers formerly had detached shafts in the angles, and the bands which separated the upper and lower shafts can be seen. The presbytery was separated from its north and south aisles by 9 ft-high walls; only the ends of these, against the piers between which they were built, now remain.

The foundations for the high altar are just west of the first pair of piers; and behind it ran the processional way for which there must have been openings in the screen walls of the first bay. The raised platform against the east wall of the church carried the altars of chapels. In the middle of this wall there is a low arch indicating a barrow way used by the builders during the construction of the church.

The east window occupies nearly the whole of the end wall of the church. Originally of eight lights, it still retains its great central mullion and rose window; but the rest of the tracery has gone, and with it the stained glass which portrayed the arms of the founder.

Above the arcade the walls are divided by two string-courses. There is no triforium, and the lower section is blank. In the upper part, at a level above the aisle roofs, are the clerestory windows: these were of two lights and had sexfoil heads and detached shafts in their inner splays. In between these windows arc the springers for the vaulting, rising from triple shafts carried on corbels between the arches of the arcade. The vaulting, both here and throughout the church, was carried on simple transverse and diagonal ribs. There were stone bosses at the intersections of the latter, and six of these bearing a variety of foliate designs now rest on the ground between the arches of the arcade. The roof-space above the presbytery vault. was lit by a large three-light window which has lost most of its tracery.

The presbytery aisles both had an altar against their east wall, with a three-light window above and two-light windows in each bay. These all had detached shafts in their inner splays, except for that in the third bay of the north aisle. This window is later than the others, and a break in the masonry to the east of the doorway below it can be seen. The doorway (its jambs were rebuilt in 1904, but some of its original detail can be seen on the exterior) gave access to the passage leading to the infirmary. This part of the aisle was built after the rest because it lay within the east end of the first church, which would have continued in use until the new one was ready. The foundations of the first church are marked out on the ground, and reference to the plan will make the sequence more easily understood.

The springers for the aisle vaulting were carried on the capitals of the piers on the inner, and on triple shafts rising from a low stone bench on the outer, sides of the aisles. In the first bay of the south aisle are the remains of a piscina.

The centre part of the church between the presbytery and the nave and the transepts retains its four great arches. Like the rest of the church it had a vaulted ceiling, and above this there was a low bell tower. This central area, together with the first bay of the nave, was used as the monks’ quire. Screen walls, of which the remains can be seen projecting from the two western piers, separated it, at any rate partially, from the transepts. The clustered shafts of the two western piers are not carried down to the ground, but rise from corbels in order to allow room for the monks’ stalls which stood against the side walls.

The north and south transepts are of similar design, each having three bays and an eastern aisle occupied by a pair of chapels separated from each other, and from the presbytery aisles, by screen walls. In two of these chapels, the bases of the altars are still in position.

The great window at the south end of the south transept originally had six lights; its tracery is missing, but detached shafts in its upper jambs still remain in position. Beneath this window, surmounted by an intruding pediment, is a doorway of four orders.

A circular stair in the south-west angle of the south transept gave access to the triforium passage, which led into the roof-space above the vault of the south aisle of the nave, and also, through a shoulderarched doorway, to the roof. The roof-spaces above the south transept aisle and the south aisle of the presbytery were reached down a stair from the roof, through the doorway to be seen in the south-east angle of the crossing pier.

The east walls of the transept aisles have two three-light windows, and the south has a window in its end wall. This latter is omitted in the north transept aisle owing to the abutting claustral buildings. On this north wall, however, some of the plaster, which would originally have covered all the wall surfaces of the church and would probably have been coloured, with imitation joints depicted by red lines, still remains in position.

The abbey church from the south-east

In the west wall of the south transept is a pair of two-light windows opposite those of the aisle. Both transepts have three clerestory windows in their east and west walls, the jambs of which (except those of the east wall of the south transept, where there is no triforium passage) are carried down to the string-course above the main arcade.

The building sequence of the north transept is complicated owing to it having contained the east end of the first church, and is most easily followed by reference to the plan at the end of the guide. The north wall contains a large six-light window. Its tracery is complete, the lower part, which did not clear the level of the roof of the monks’ dormitory abutting against its outer side, being treated as wall panelling.

n the north-west angle of the north transept was the night stair. The existing steps are modern, but they are built on the line of the original ones leading to the doorway through which the monks entered the church from their dormitory for night-time offices. In this angle also, there is a circular stair (not open to the public) leading from dormitory level to the triforium wall passage, which gave access to the roof-spaces of the north aisles of the presbytery and nave. The stair also led, through the doorway that can be seen high up, to the main roof-spaces above the vaulted ceilings, and to the roof. The wall passage runs round all three sides of the north transept; it is slightly differently treated from that of the south transept, having a flat instead of a shouldered roof.

There are two windows in the west wall of the north transept at clerestory level; but the windows below, which would have had to have high sills to clear the roof of the cloister walk, are omitted. The doorway at ground level in the north end of the transept leads to the vestry. The east wall has abutments for two flying buttresses, a feature that does not occur elsewhere at Tintern.

The aisled nave consists of six bays: its north arcade is missing, though the bases of the piers remain. The south arcade has been saved from collapse by a system of steel reinforcing, part of which has been concealed by reforming the roof over the south aisle. The monks’ quire extended from the crossing into the first bay of the nave, from the rest of which it was separated by the pulpitum. This was a massive stone screen, containing a central doorway and a stair, which stood between the first pair of piers. There was a second screen between the next pair of piers, against the west side of which stood the lay-brothers’ altar. The latter’s quire occupied the fourth and fifth bays of the nave, and their stalls would have stood against the screen walls built between the piers. From the remains of these walls it will be seen that the south aisle was probably completely cut off from the nave, and could only be entered through its west door or from the south transept. The lay-brothers entered their quire through the west bay of the north arcade, which was left open. There was also a doorway from the north aisle in the screen wall in the second bay.

The two eastern bays of the nave were completed first, enabling the monks to bring their new quire into use. The remainder of the nave was finished later, and the transition from the first to the second period of building can be seen in the change from the use of detached to attached shafts in the jambs of the windows: this occurs after the second bay of the clerestory, which has two-light windows with sexfoil heads, and after three and three-quarter bays of the south aisle where the break in the masonry can be readily seen.

The west end of the nave has in it a great seven-light window with nearly all its tracery intact. Above it another window lit the roof-space over the vault, and below is a twin doorway, the exterior of which and the west front should be looked at next. The doorways have trefoil heads, and are contained within an arch filled with tracery and decorated wall panels; whilst on either side are wall panels of similar character. At the south-east angle one of the graceful octagonal spirclets that surmounted the buttresses survives. The column bases in front of the west door are all that remains of a fifteenth-century arcaded porch which is believed to have contained a chapel.

The south aisle has two-light windows with sexfoil heads except for the two westernmost which are of the second period. The latter have quatrefoil heads and have high sills, apparently to suit the ground level, which the external plinth shows to have risen at this point. A number of roof bosses, two bearing faces, are placed on the floor of this aisle. Both nave aisles have three-light windows in their west walls, though of slightly different design, and their roof-spaces each have a lozenge-shaped ventilator.

The north aisle is of the second period. Its two-light windows with quatrefoil heads have high sills in order to clear the roof of the cloister walk. The eastern bay is later still, containing the richly decorated processional doorway of fourteenth-century date, with a window above it of different design to the others. The doorway in the north-west angle of the aisle was used by the lay-brothers for entering the church from their quarters in the western range.

Few tombs remain in the church and probably the only one in its original position is that under the north arch of the crossing. This has a covering slab with an incised floriated cross and the inscription HIC: IACET: NICHOLAUS: LANDAVENSIS . . (Here lies Nicholas of Llandaff). The grave belongs to the first half of the thirteenth century, and cannot have long been in position in the south transept of the first church before it was buried under the floor of the new one. There was a Nicholas who was Precentor and Treasurer of Llandaff c. 1191-1218, and it may well be that he entered the monastery before his death, and that this is his grave.

Another interesting tombstone is within the railing in the south aisle of the nave. It is an incised slab with a large fish and a trio of smaller ones upon it and in Gothic letters HIC IACET WILL(E)LMUS WELLSTED. Beside this slab there is another with a cross and staff without any inscription other than the name BROWNE and a mason’s mark, possibly added at a later date.

The cloister lies on the north side of the church. It was enlarged during the rebuilding of the abbey in the thirteenth century, part of its site having been occupied by the first church. It consisted of four covered walks round the sides of an open court. Only the foundation course of the walls on the outer side of these walks remains. They had external buttresses, between which there would have been windows. A large number of the corbels which carried the lean-to roofs are still in position, and also a stone bench which ran round three sides of the cloister.

The cloister walk nearest the church was customarily used by the monks for their studies, order being kept by the prior, the remains of whose canopied seat can be seen in the centre of the church wall. Opposite it there is a rectangular stone foundation which may have supported a water cistern.

In the east cloister walk there is a round-headed recess with another blocked one beside it. These were the cupboards for books that were in use in the cloister. They are of twelfth-century date, this section of the church wall having also formed part of the cloister of the first church. The northern cupboard was blocked in the fifteenth century, when the rebuilding of the cloister with a stone vaulted roof was begun; but, as the scanty remains of this late work show, it had made little progress by the time of the Dissolution. The buildings round the cloister will now be described in turn.

The first doorway in the eastern range has a central mullion and fine, deeply carved, mouldings and tracery, and is of fourteenth-century date. It leads into a long room. This was originally divided into two by a cross-wall, and the front part, which had a barrel vault, formed the book room. The rear part, which was entered from the church, was the vestry. It has a vaulted roof of three bays, the easternmost of which survives together with its tiled floor.

Interior of the church looking east

Various stone fragments from the church have been collected here, amongst them the mutilated effigy of a knight in chain armour that must date from c. 1200, and another, also much disfigured, of the Virgin and Child. There is a large double grave slab with inscriptions in lead-filled incised Lombardic capitals. They read:

[HIC J]ACET: H[ENRICU]s: [D]E: LANCAUT: QU[ONDAM A]BBAS: DE: VOTO: and HIC: JACE[T: JOHA]NNES: DE: LYUNS.

Lancaut is the name of the peninsula on the Gloucestershire side of the Wye two miles below Tintern. The abbey of de Voto was Tintern Minor [Map], the daughter house in Ireland. The stone is undated, but probably belongs to the thirteenth century.

Above the book room the line of the roof of the monks’ dormitory will be seen on the church wall, and also one jamb of a doorway that led to a room over the eastern part of the vestry; this was the normal position for the strongroom in which the house’s most valuable possessions were kept.

The next chamber to the north is the chapter house. Here the monks met daily to discuss the business of the house, correct faults, and hear a chapter of the Rule of the Order read. Built originally in the twelfth century, this room was largely rebuilt in the following century, from which time the doorways, with their richly clustered detached shafts, twin aisles and vaulted roof all date. It was lit by windows in its east end, and in the first and possibly second bays: that on the south having to be blocked when the vestry was built. The monks sat on a stone bench that ran round the sides of the room. The foundations of this bench and part of the tiled floor can be seen. In the cloister walk opposite the chapter house door there are five grave slabs, their inscriptions are no longer legible.

The room immediately north of the chapter house was the parlour, where conversation between the monks was allowed. It is a long narrow chamber entered from the cloister by yet another richly carved doorway, and lit by a window in its east end.

The narrow space north of the parlour, between it and the line of the buildings of the north range, is believed to have contained the original day stair to the dormitory. North of this again is the passage leading from the cloister to the infirmary buildings, which will be described later (page 22).

On the north side of the passage, and occupying the remainder of the eastern range, is the novices’ lodging. The novices comprised the new entrants to the monastery, who underwent a period of probation before graduating as monks.

This fine hall was originally only half its present length. Its southern half, now masked by later work, formed part of the first lay-out of the abbey buildings. It was enlarged northward in the latter part of the twelfth century, and a window of this date survives at the north end of the east wall. In the thirteenth century stone vaulting supported on central piers was inserted, buttresses were added to give the necessary additional support, and the narrow lancet windows were constructed.

The monks’ dormitory or dorter occupied the whole first floor of the eastern range, and the line of its roof against the church has already been noted. From the vantage point of the novices’ lodging it will be seen how the range, which was laid out centrally with the transepts of the original church, is overlapped by the wider transepts of the thirteenth-century building.

Projecting eastwards at right angles to the novices’ lodging, and built at the same time as the latter was enlarged, is the reredorter or latrine. The southern half of this building was vaulted, and had a door and windows towards the infirmary cloister. The northern half contains the main drain, through which formerly flowed a stream of water. There would have been a row of cubicles over the drain; but it is uncertain whether these existed at both first-floor and ground level.

This range, the eastern part of which still stands to second-floor level, was rebuilt in the thirteenth century. It contains the warming house, refectory and kitchen. The archway near the north-east angle of the cloister leads into a vaulted passage on the east side of which is the door to the novices’ lodging. There are two arches at the north end of the passage. That to the east led to the day stair to the monks’ dormitory. Only fragmentary remains of the stair, which superseded the earlier day stair next to the parlour, now exist; but the higher level of the inner arch to allow headroom on the stairs will be noticed. Some of the original plaster that once covered all the walls can be seen in this area. The second arch contains a doorway leading down to a yard.

The first chamber to the west, entered from the cloister walk by a doorway of two orders, is the warming house. This was the only place, apart from the kitchen and infirmary, where a fire was allowed. There is a central fireplace supported on four piers, with arched passageways on either side allowing all-round access to the fire. On the north, part of the hooded cowl of the fireplace is still in position. The southern half of the building has a rib-vaulted roof of two bays, and the metal dowels for fixing small bosses at the intersection of the ribs can be seen. The northern half, which extended beyond the upper floors, has a simple open roof whose line can be readily seen. At a later period the central fireplace went out of use, its chimney was blocked, and a new smaller fireplace built at the north end of the room.

The upper floors above the warming house and passageway are no longer accessible. On the first floor there is a large chamber lit towards the cloister by two lancets and an earlier round-headed window, and by two lancets on the north. West of this is a second room with a vaulted ceiling and a small square-headed window on the south and a lancet on the north. These rooms were reached from the monks’ dormitory, and were occupied by the prior who was responsible for its discipline. In the sixteenth century a second storey was added and two three-light and one single-light Tudor windows survive on the north, and one on the south.

The large doorway opening off the centre of the north cloister walk is that of the frater, or monks’ dining hall. On either side of it, flanked by arcading with detached shafts, are two recesses: the larger contained the bowls where the monks washed before meals, and the smaller contained towels. The fine dining-hall is 84 ft long and 29 ft wide. It was built in the early thirteenth century to replace the first frater which ran east and west. On its east side it retains four ofits four-light windows with much of their heavy plate tracery. These windows were arranged in pairs, each pair forming a bay of which there were four. The moulded arches and detached banded columns are continued as panelling round the south bay and end wall.

In the centre of the west side of the hall is the doorway, vaulted lobby, and part of the stairs that led to the pulpit, where one of the monks read from the scriptures during meals.

Near the south-east corner is the door leading to a vaulted pantry or storeroom, while close by in the south wall are a pair of recesses. The one on the left with a drain was for washing plates and spoons, and the other contained a cupboard for storing them.

At the south end of the west wall there is a serving hatch from the kitchen and, in the end wall nearby, the recess for a drop-down table.

The processional doorway from the cloister to the church

The kitchen occupies the remainder of the north range. Its internal arrangement has been largely destroyed by a cottage which formerly stood on the site. A cross-wall (see plan) once divided the building into two rooms, the smaller one to the east being used as the servery. Both rooms had doorways to the cloister. The main one also had a door leading to the kitchen yard on the north, and another on the west through which food was carried to the lay-brothers, dining-hall in the western range.

There was a large fireplace in the wall dividing the kitchen and servery. This wall continues northwards over the main drain, and probably formed the east wall of the scullery, but the walls of later cottages have obscured its form.

In Cistercian houses the range of buildings on the west side of the cloister was occupied by lay-brothers. At Tintern the western range, as rebuilt in the thirteenth century, does not abut against the church as was normal, but starts some forty feet to the north. The southern part stands to first-floor level, and the range has a total length of over 180 ft.

The chamber on the ground floor at the southern end of the range, within which the modern ticket office has been built, is the outer parlour, where the monks could meet visitors from outside the abbey. It had a vaulted ceiling. Outside the parlour there is a porch with a stone bench on its south side, and a large arched recess on the north. In the fifteenth century a stone vaulted roof was added, and the inner doorway was rebuilt.

Access to the two rooms above the porch and parlour was provided by the stair reached through the doorway at the north-west of the latter. These formed the cellarer’s lodging, and the larger of the rooms has a thirteenth-century window on its south side with one of the following century inserted.

The outer parlour had a large doorway to the cloister, and another in its south wall opened on to the covered walk by which the laybrothers reached the church. On the east side of this walk are the remains of the stair which led, by way of a passage, to the lay-brothers’ dormitory on the first floor of the building beyond the parlour. Near the foot of the stair are the remains of a cistern which was supplied by a lead pipe. The water supply is supposed to have been drawn from the spring called Coldwell on the hillside to the south of the abbey.

To the north of the outer parlour is a square vaulted chamber with no direct access to the cloisters. It had a doorway in its north wall, and another and a narrow window on the west, and was apparently a cellar or storeroom.

A skew-passage in the north-west angle of the cloister leads to the next chamber in the range. This was the lay-brothers’ frater, or dining-hall. Two of its trefoil-headed lancet windows survive in the west wall, and it is clear that there was one to each of the broad vaulted bays, the remains of four of which are to be seen.

The main drain runs underneath the frater, and on the north side of this is a twelfth-century doorway which formed part of the original lay-out of the abbey, and which was buried under the floor when the existing hall was built. The wall running across the frater is not its original north end, the exact location of which is now uncertain. It is possible that the northern end of the range may, as in the contemporary building at Beaulieu, Hampshire, have been used for the lay-brothers’ infirmary. After the middle of the fourteenth century the lay-brothers ceased to form an important part of the community, and the hall would have been put to other use. The lay-brothers’ dormitory was on the first floor.

The infirmary hall was built in the thirteenth, though its doorway was altered in the following, century. The hall is 107 ft long and 54 ft wide, and was divided into a nave and aisles by two rowsofclustered columns. The bases of two of the responds of the arcades remain in position on the north side at the west end, and on the south side at the east end; from these it is clear that the first bay at either end of the building was separated from the aisles by a wall as part of the original plan. The remains of a sill in the north wall show that the aisles were lit by pairs of lancet windows.

On the north side there is a large chamber which extends northwards for half its length beyond the line of the hall. The two doorways opening off the north aisle lead to the kitchens. At the west end, set at right angles to the hall, is a room with a drain at its north end, which must have been the infirmary reredorter.

In the fifteenth century the aisles were divided up into separate rooms each with its fireplace, and the arcades were apparently removed and replaced by walls.

A passage, formerly covered, and built in the fourteenth century over the foundations of earlier walls, leads directly from the infirmary hall to the church. It is unlikely that there was a separate infirmary chapel.

The infirmary cloister measures 84 ft by 71 ft. There is the base for a cistern in the south-west corner of the cloister garth. The remaining chambers round the cloister will next be briefly described, though the purpose to which they were all put is not known. On the north, entered through a doorway in the passage which separates it from the monks’ reredorter, is a room with a later fireplace inserted in its east wall. East of this is a larger chamber measuring 34 ft from north to south and 24 ft wide. It had an outward opening door to the cloister, and a window at the north end of its east wall. The north wall is of composite material, but the surviving double buttress at its north-west angle is original.

To the east of this chamber was an open court beyond which is the infirmary kitchen. This was built in the early fifteenth century and must have replaced an earlier building. The fireplace is towards the north end of the east wall. The massive lintel rests broken in two in front of the hearth. Later in the century another kitchen, connected by a passage built out on the south, was added. This had great fireplaces in its east and west walls, and a door on the south led to the infirmary hall. On the north side is a scullery, to the north-east of which are the foundations of a fourteenth-century building which must have been demolished when the later kitchen was built.