Keys to the chapel
It has been suggested that the priest, Thomas Wel, who was awarded a corrody by the Fountains community in 1535, was accommodated in a private chamber in the infirmary, since he was given a key to the chapel here. By the terms of the corrody, Thomas was to receive meat and fish whenever it was served to the community, bread and ale for supper, and supplies of wax candles and wood. He was also to have a serving boy, the services of a barber and all that he required for the celebration of Mass.
[The Fountains Abbey Lease Book, no. 240 (pp. 254-255)]
The infirmary buildings
Little now survives of the buildings that made up the impressive
infirmary complex at Fountains, but excavations at the site have
revealed much about the original layout and later remodelling.(83) The
complex was dominated by a large aisled hall. This was originally
an open-plan hall occupying eight bays; a toilet block stood
to the west of the hall and had seven latrine shafts, which can
still be seen. The interior of the hall would have been striking,
with white lime-washed walls and grey Nidderdale marble. The
beds here would have been arranged around the walls and the open
space in the centre used for meals and perhaps also for exercise.
Those staying in the infirmary enjoyed a more comfortable lifestyle
and the hall was heated by two fireplaces.(84) In
the late fourteenth century greater concern for privacy and comfort
led to the partition
of hall into individual cells, each with its own hearth and toilet.
There may have been ten or twelve such apartments.(85)
A two-storey
chamber block stood to the east of the hall, and it was here
that the disgraced Peter Ayling resided after resigning
from the abbacy in 1279.(86) It
may have been to this chamber-block that Thomas Burton retired,
following his brief and tumultuous
abbacy at Meaux. Upon his
resignation Thomas received a pension of 40s from his Father
Abbot, Robert Burley of
Fountains, and a spot in the infirmary, where he compiled the first
book of the
chronicle of Meaux.(87)
[Read more about the rumpus at Meaux]
The infirmary complex also had a
chapel, which was built in the late thirteenth century and fitted
with private pews in the late
fifteenth century. It had its own kitchen, where meat might be
cooked, and a small dining room (misericord)
where all members of the monastic community might occasionally
enjoy meat.(88)
