A relic of a monastery in Dorset

A SMALL SIX-SIDED stone structure stands in the heart of the town of Sherborne in Dorset (UK). It is built with a yellowish stone in the mediaeval gothic style. Open to the elements on each of its six sides, its ceiling is a perfect example of gothic fan vaulting. Although it looks like a small kiosk or somewhere to shelter from the rain, it was not built as such.

Sherborne is famous for its magnificent gothic abbey church, which stands a few yards from the structure mentioned above. Until 1539, the church was attached to a Benedictine monastery. The latter was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539, when most of the monastic buildings were either destroyed or sold. Some of them now form part of the venerable private Sherborne School.

Like most monastic institutions, that at Sherborne had cloisters. The six-sided structure, now known as ‘The Conduit’ was originally built in the early 16th century as part of the cloisters, to serve as a washing place for the monks. It survived the demolition of the monastery, and now forms pat of the quaint urban landscape of central Sherborne.