Relhan Collection : 14 Barnwell Priory. The Cellarer’s Chequer

Relhan, Richard, 1782-1844

Relhan Collection

<p style='text-align: justify;'><p>1800</p><p>The Cellarer’s Chequer, a rare survival of Barnwell Priory, is shown without the thatched roof of other drawings (<b>15, 16, 17</b>) although labelled with the same date (1800). The use ascribed to it is a chequer (treasury), which is likely for this solid small room, but not certain. The C13 building retains two double bays of clunch vaults with Barnack stone ribs rising from the four external walls and had at least two storeys. It has been much repaired and altered using original C13 stone and C20 brick. All the drawings of different walls show original C13 openings blocked by stone rubble, and reused stone patched with C18 brickwork; some new openings created in the walls had brick arches. Detailed in the drawings are remains of the cloister and archways where other buildings were attached. Le Keux, 1842, sketched the building when it was ‘used as a coach house’, supported by octagonal pillars with a plain groined roof of stone. The 2019 photographs show how much modern repair work has also taken place. It is in the care of Cambridge City Council.</p><p> Bradley and Pevsner 2014; Haigh 1988; Le Keux 1842; Taylor 1999; RCHME 1959; VCH 1948</p></p>