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Archaeologia Cantiana -  Vol. 88  1973  page 149
 Excavations at Boxley Abbey  By P. J. Tester, F.S.A. continued 

SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION

   Boxley Abbey is seen to have conformed closely to a Cistercian architectural pattern followed very frequently wherever the Order was established in the twelfth century. It was one of no less than sixty-eight houses founded from Clairvaux during the abbacy of St. Bernard (d. 1153) under whose influence uniformity of architectural planning and severe simplicity in structural detail became an outstanding characteristic of the White Monks. The church at Boxley was similar in plan to Rievaulx (1135-40), Fountains (1138-60) and Kirkstall (1152-75), all of which originally had aisled naves, short square-ended presbyteries, with three chapels in each transept, their style owing much to the Burgundian Romanesque prevalent in the Continental homeland of the Order. The French abbeys of Fontenay (Côte-d'Or) and Noirlac (Cher) were also similar with naves of eight bays but with only two chapels in each transept.30  Similarly, the succession of sacristy, chapter house, parlour, passage and dormitory undercroft, extending south from the transept, as at Boxley, reflects a standardized arrangement repeated in many Cistercian monasteries, including the two French examples mentioned. These facts enable the reconstruction of the church and monastic buildings to be made with confidence in this instance in spite of the limited degree of excavation at present possible.
   Another striking example of Cistercian uniformity is the 

occurrence of tile mosaic floors very similar to those of the great northern churches of the Order, but extremely uncommon elsewhere. Whether monks from the north brought this art to Boxley or common inspiration was derived from a Continental source is open to speculation.
   A reconstruction of the plan of the twelfth-century church is shown in Fig. 7. This is based on excavated evidence-as indicated in Mr. Caiger's site plan (Fig. 1) with details added by reference to other contemporary Cistercian churches. In addition to openings of which traces still remain-i.e. the west door and the south-east entrance- the position of the doorways into the sacristy and cloister may be inferred with reasonable certainty, and the door at the end of the north transept was the usual communication with the cemetery,31  as at Rievaulx. Ritual arrangements shown east of the rood screen are based on the early layout of Fountains32  where the monks' quire was situated mainly in the crossing and projected only one bay westward into the nave. A whole bay was taken by the pulpitum in the form of double screens supporting a loft crossing the nave, to the west of which the two bays behind the rood screen formed the retroquire where the aged and infirm monks were allowed to sit during the
   30  M. Aubert, op. cit., i, 114 and 119.
   31  Ibid., 300.
   32  R. Gilyard-Beer, Abbey8, London, 1958, Fig. 10.

Page 149  (This page prepared for the Website by Ted Connell)                    

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