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The north and south transepts
(4/8)
Both the north and south transept had three chapels
where private masses
could be celebrated by ordained members of the community. Each chapel
was enclosed by a screen, there was a drain in the south wall where
the vessels were washed and a niche where the sacraments might be
placed. By the thirteenth century the floors here were tiled but
before this there may have been cobbles, slabs or simply earth.
In the SW corner of the south transept the remains
of the monks’ nightstairs can be seen. These ran from the monks’
dormitory and provided covered access to the church for night services;
during the day the monks entered from the cloister door. Between
the north and middle chapels of the south transept an image stood
on a pedestal. As at Rievaulx,
this may have been of St Christopher, whose image was meant to protect
the beholder from a sudden death that day;(4)
presumably there were no such guarantees against a long, gruelling
death. A door in the north transept a door opened out to the monks’
cemetery and this was used at funerals. In the late nineteenth century
ghostly apparitions were reported and witnesses claimed to have
seen a funeral procession of sombre men, clad in white, proceeding
slowly down the nave.
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