The Kitchen

The kitchen is positioned between the choir monks' dining room and the laybrothers' dining room in the west range. Food was served piping hot to the table., In the early years simple meals of stewed vegetables and coarse bread were served to the monks, washed down with water, wine or ale. The large circular foundation wall next to the kitchen is perhaps a large vat for brewing., Monks could drink up to 2 gallons a day, though it was weaker than modern beer! The foundation wall could also have been for a dovecote for keeping pigeons. During the later Middle Ages, after the rules had been relaxed. Meat was eaten more often and young pigeons were prized for their tender flesh. There were also kitchen gardens nearby and fishponds are shown on 18th century plans.