The Chapter House of YORK MINSTER * CLICK on part of Minster  *   York Area Index

THE octagonal CHAPTER HOUSE of YORK MINSTER

Looking through the Chapter House doorway from the vestibule passage way into the octagonal Chapter House itself built between 1260 and 1280 (or completed by 1286?). The doors have the original fine 13th century iron-work embossed on them. In here the Dean and Chapter would meet to discuss the affairs and administration of the Minster. The sculpture of the Virgin and Child is carved into the supporting stonework. The chapter house is 63 feet across and about the same height to the top of the dome and a remarkable construction, since it is without a central pillar supporting the domed roof.

The ceiling is highly decorated.

The stained glass of the Chapter House

There are five? great stained glass windows, much of the glass is original. Canopied stalls set around the walls below the stained glass windows have a remarkable set of carvings (see further down)

Details of one of the painted glass windows.

The carvings of the Chapter House

A small sample of the remarkable variety of carvings of heads, animals, birds, plant foliage etc. and these with other carvings in the vestibule constitute some of the finest medieval carvings in Europe, if not the world? Their extremely good state of preservation has been helped by being inside escaping the ravages of the weather.

Picking grapes? in Yorkshire!?

York Area Index 

docspics Yorkshire images pictures © Phil Brown