Listed Building record MDO14821 - Sherborne Abbey, Sherborne; The Slype

The slype is a narrow passage between the north transept of the abbey church of St. Mary and the Chapter House. It acted as a passageway from the cloister and may also have served as an inner parlour. It is integral to the structure of the Chapter House and is probably contemporary with it (early 12th century). Excavations between 1974-6 demonstrated a long history of use, including burials and wall foundations from the Saxon period or earlier. Following the dissolution the upper room housed a brewery and in the 18th century it housed the school laundry. By the 19th century it was in use as offices. The buidliding is still inuse as part of Sherborne School today.

The slype is a narrow passage between the north transept of the abbey church of St. Mary and the Chapter House. It acted as a passageway from the cloister and may also have served as an inner parlour. It is integral to the structure of the Chapter House and is probably contemporary with it (early 12th century). Excavations between 1974-6 demonstrated a long history of use, including burials and wall foundations from the Saxon period or earlier. Following the dissolution the upper room housed a brewery and in the 18th century it housed the school laundry. By the 19th century it was in use as offices. The building is still in use as part of Sherborne School today.

Keen and Gem conducted excavations in the area of and to the north of The Slype between 1974-6 in advance of refurbishments to bring the building into school use. He results of the excavations were published as DNHAS monograph 16 (1) and number in square brackets refer to context number in the report.

The excavations suggested that there may have been an E-W paasage directly outside the north wall of the church in period 3 (1050-1120). Wall [F152] lies a metre to the north of the north wall of the church and partly survives to divide the western part of the slype into two rooms. This long, narrow and decorated space may be taken to indicate a passage between the Saxon church and its monastic east range.

Period 4 (1120-1240) foundations [F87] & [F150] overlay and cut the period 3 foundations and form the north wall of the present Slype building. Foundation [F150] was bonded with the east wall foundation [F132]. It is possible that the eastern portion of the earlier period 3 passage wall [F152] was removed at this time to form three rooms, one approximately 3m square to the east and two still subdivided to the west. The period 4 walls of the slype still survive today to a height of at least 1.3m. On the north face of the north transept there is surviving 12th century blind arcading with round headed arches. This is limited to the length of the slype.

The period 4 room in the east part of the slype was vaulted in the 13th century, to judge by the ridge mouldings and the passageway may have been discontinued at this time.

<1> Keen, L, and Ellis, P, 2005, Sherborne Abbey and School (Monograph). SDO10263.

Record last edited

Aug 23 2024 1:01PM