Architecture and environment : St Benet’s Holm and the fashioning of the English monastic gatehouse
Abstract
This article analyses the gatehouse of the wealthy Benedictine abbey of St Benet's Holm in Norfolk, one of the set-pieces of English monastic architectural patronage in the fourteenth century. The ruinous condition of this building, and its sequestered location, means that it has attracted little scholarly attention in the past, and the neglect has been exacerbated by the presence of a brick windmill-tower superimposed on its remains four centuries after the gatehouse was built. This forced marriage, at once preposterous and compelling in effect, has absorbed most of the attention paid to the site, and because what is left of the gatehouse's main façade is embedded within the mill-tower, and thus difficult to photograph, its artistic uniqueness and quality of execution have been concealed. There has hence been no serious attempt to investigate or contextualize it (Figs 1, 2).
Citation
Luxford , J 2014 , ' Architecture and environment : St Benet’s Holm and the fashioning of the English monastic gatehouse ' , Architectural History , vol. 57 , no. 2014 , 31 , pp. 31-72 . https://doi.org/10.1017/S0066622X00001374
Publication
Architectural History
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
0066-622XType
Journal article
Description
This is a long article (about 17,000 words) about a grand but previously unstudied monastic building in the east of England. The gatehouse is assessed structurally and in terms of its meaning, and also set in its architectural and historical contexts.Collections
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