Bridlington Priory Cloister Arcading

Bridlington Priory Cloister Arcading

Fragments of the cloisters found in the churchyard have been reconstructed and erected here in memory of Thomas Harland and his family who took a prominent part in the nineteenth-century Restoration.

All the capitals and arches are original but in some places new shafts have been used. This twin-shafted arcade shows some of the finest stone carving of the period 1175-1200.

The variety of detail, the undercut interlacing in the refinement of the design, the curious variation of the scalloped capitals treated like folds of linen edged with pearl ornaments make the arcading one of the most interesting and beautiful of its kind and period in the country.

A cast of a complete section of the arcading, because of its interest to students of architecture, has been placed in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. At the base upon which the arcading has been erected are to be seen some other extremely fine capitals which, like the capitals of the arcading, show by their intricate carving French influence and also Anglo-Norman inspiration. They bear a resemblance to the fine capitals in the Museum at Amiens which were formerly in the Premonstratensian Church of Dom Martin, Pas-de-Calais