Other Rooms Leading from The Cloister

Other Rooms Leading from The Cloister. Kirkstall Abbey. In this part of the cloister you can see doorways leading to a number of different rooms and buildings. The parlour next to the chapter house was the only room where monks were allowed to speak to each other freely!, Here the monks were given their daily tasks by the Prior every morning. The day stairs led up to the monks' dormitory on the first floor of the east range. These stairs were later relocated to the warming house., The passageway or slype led to the abbot's lodging and the infirmary or hospital. A fire was lit in the warming house next door between November and Easter each year. Also on the south side of the cloister are the dining room or refectory and kitchen entrances, and the decorative arches of the lavatorium or wash place. The monks washed here once a week. Beneath the lawn archaeologists found a cistern or settling tank for collecting silt that was washed into the pipes by the Abbey's water supply system.