Measurement and Proportion at Bordesley Abbey

Abstract

During the excavation of Bordesley Abbey in Worcestershire, an investigation of the methods of planning and setting out for this English Cistercian church was undertaken. After the unit of measurement used by the medieval builders was established, an attempt was made to suggest the specific points of measurement and lengths consciously employed in the earliest stages of construction. A similar program of measurement and analysis was tried at two other Cistercian churches in England, Fountains and Kirkstall; and the results indicated that the same foot, 29.5 cm. in length, was used as at Bordesley, and that in some cases there were similar proportional relationships, though expressed in differing points of measurement. This study was stimulated by the general regularity found in many twelfth-century Cistercian plans and the written evidence that the Cistercians attempted to regulate their Order's architectural expressions in the first century of their expansion. An attempt was made to bring together presumed theoretical guidelines and practical activities of setting out and building on the site.