Western or Lay Brother's Range

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The culture at Cistercian monasteries held manual work to be important for many reasons. But, of course, farming was a principal (not to say vital) source of income. So successful were the Cistercians at these activities that they were often thriving businesses. As these enterprises grew, the monks had to make sure that their community remained in touch with spiritual activities and so engaged lay brothers to carry out much of the time consuming labour that would have kept the ordained monks too far away from their services and prayer. The term derives from the same origin as the word 'laity'; that is, they were monks who were not clerics and had not been ordained or taken the full vows of the order.

Lay brothers lived communally with their brothers but were quartered separately usually in a range situated to the west of the cloister and south of the church, that ran on a north-south orientation.

In non-Cistercian houses, buildings in this location would have been put to other uses (eg the Abbot's lodging, Cellarer's accommodation or guest quarters over an undercroft for storage).