Kitchen

Kitchen This part of a monastic establishment invariably adjoined the refectory, behind it, in Benedictine houses, and on the side, usually, in Cistercian arrangements. The ordinary shape was square, but there were exceptions: thus, a bottle-form was adopted at Marmoutier, a round at Chartres, Villers, Saumur, and Vendome, an octagon at Pontlevoy, Caen, Durham, Glastonbury, and with little apses at Fontdvrault. At Westminster there was a vaulted way to the hall; at Canterbury a covered alley; but in the smaller orders a hatch or window formed the means of communication. There was also a kitchen for the infirmary, and the abbot had his own kitchen.