A CARPENTER’S STUDY OF THE CHAPTER HOUSE
VESTIBULE DOOR, WESTMINSTER ABBEY
Peter Massey & Paul Reed
The Westminster Abbey Chapter House vestibule door is a rare example of mid eleventh century carpentry in Great Britain. In studying it, we have established both how the timbers were produced and how the door was manufactured. We have also determined the many types of tools used by the highly skilled carpenters who made it.
This study has also given an insight into Anglo-Saxon timber sawing and the management and the use of timber storage yards for prepared timber. The door is situated in the passage vestibule to the Chapter House of Westminster Abbey from the cloisters on the right-hand side and is still used as access to the vestibule cupboard. It has been identified as having originated from Edward the Confessor’s abbey and has been dated by dendrochronology to between 1032 and 1064, making it possibly the oldest Saxon door in Great Britain.
Cecil Hewett studied it in the late 1970s, Jane Geddes later described the construction and ledges in her book about decorative ironwork, and it was mentioned recently by Campbell and Tutton in their general survey of the history and conservation of doors.2 Angela Thomas carried out a detailed survey in 2005, producing front and rear elevation drawings (Figures 1 and 2). The door has been made narrower by about 100mm and its original size and location are not known.
However, the Pyx Chamber, the room next to the Chapter Housevestibule, is of Saxon masonry with a stone vaulted ceiling, built in the early eleventh century as part of the earlier abbey. It is very likely the door was made for Edward the Confessor’s Abbey under the supervision of Teinfrith, the master carpenter(churchwright) to Edward the Confessor at the time of the building of the Abbey between 1050 and 1066.3 The door was salvaged and reused in its present position during the thirteenth century.
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1 The existing door front, now on the inside of the cupboard. Drawn by Angela Thomas
2 The existing door back, now on the outside of the cupboard. Drawn by Angela Thomas
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This research is still ongoing...
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