Glastonbury in 1397 is the setting for Joseph of Arimathea’s Treasure, the fifth novel in my Lady Apollonia West Country Mystery Series. The medieval history of the town of Glastonbury was intimately tied to Glastonbury Abbey, and the town had literally built up around the abbey grounds. Today that can still be seen, but those grounds, with one exception, only contain ruins as shown in the diagram on the left in which the viewer is looking eastward.
The northwest corner of the grounds is dominated by the ruins of the great abbey church which was almost 600 feet in length. Only Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, destroyed by fire in the 17th century, compared in length. Some stonework is left in Glastonbury: the walls of the Norman Lady Chapel on the west end of the church and scattered bits of walls from the nave, the crossing, and the quire. A marker in the quire shows where the remains of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere lie, recovered by monks in the 12th century, they were reburied in the quire in the 13th century. Much of church area is now covered in grass.
A visitor can view a model of the church and other monastic buildings in the museum located at the extreme northwest of the grounds. Also, some remnants from the abbey, such as 13th century wooden doors, are on display there.
The chapter house was south of the south transept, but nothing of it remains. Similarly, the cloister was just south of the nave. Further south was the refectory where the vault beneath it survives. Beyond that was the monk’s kitchen, but nothing of it remains. South of the chapter house was the dormitory. It was on the first floor, but only a suggestion of the ground floor remains. Past it was the monks’ toilet block but now there is just a suggestion that something once stood there.
The abbot’s house was detached from all these monastic buildings and stood to the west of them. Today all that survives from the abbot’s accommodations are the abbot’s kitchen and a little fragment of wall from his hall. The only other medieval structure, within the abbey grounds still standing is the entry gate to Magdalene Street at the far northwest corner. On the south side of the grounds, one can visit two beautiful ponds and the site of the abbey herb garden.
For more on Glastonbury Abbey, click on
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glastonbury_Abbey .
Tags: Chaucer's England, historical fiction, medieval mysteries