Beds and cupboards, known as aumbries, were built into walls as were benches and settles.
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Low down in the corners of the east wall are two hollows known as aumbries which were probably used to contain relics.
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There are aumbries on each side, and a small basin at the eastern end of the southerly wall. There are also two gravestones inside.
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Her children prosper, folded in the aumbries, cradled in paper, smocked in the complex fabric, the house the wasp has made, her enduring book.
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Probably there were earlier, less permanent, cross partitions. The hall has a large blocked fireplace, a lavabo, aumbries, and what may be a buffet recess in the north wall.
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The chancel contains aumbries on the north and south sides. The octagonal font dates from the 14th century. The oak pulpit and panelling in the nave and chancel are from the 18th century.
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The interior of the church is plastered. In the north wall of the chancel are two square aumbries, and in the south wall is a piscina and another square aumbry. Over the east window is a blocked 12th-century window. At the west end of the church is a gallery.
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Monumental brass in Ulcombe Church, to Ralph I St Leger (d.1470) and his wife "Anne" The south wall of the south chapel contains a 13th-century piscina. The east end of the chancel contains two aumbries. The western bays of the north and south arcades in the chancel contain carved screens.
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According to Ritual Notes, the Anglo-Catholic manual of rites and ceremonies, aumbries are used for reservation rather than tabernacles in churches in some dioceses because the diocesan bishop has so ordered. These aumbries should conform in general to the requirements for tabernacles including an ever-burning light and covering with a veil. For storage of the holy oil of the sick a lesser aumbry is to be used; it should be lined with purple silk, covered with a purple veil and kept locked; the door should be inscribed "oleum sacrum". (If the priest lives far away from the church he or she may be authorised to keep the holy oil of the sick at home.)Cairncross, Henry, et al.
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The south transept contains the church sacristy, with the north transept a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Windows in both transepts are clear glazed. Both transepts contain aumbries, with the north, a wall statue bracket. Blocked rood loft access openings also exist at both east and west sides of the south transept.
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From the north-east angle of the cellar a turnpike stair leads to all storeys of the tower. The hall has a wide fireplace and four windows. There are two aumbries in the jambs while a third aumbry has an ogival lintel. The bedroom, on the second floor, has a wall press and a garderobe.
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The church contains one of the few surviving aumbries in Cheshire. In the nave is a chained bible dated 1617, which has been in the church since the 17th century. An oak chest dating from the early 17th century is made of wood from Chester Cathedral. Over the chancel arch is a painting depicting the Creation.
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To the southeast of the tower is a circular stair turret, rising to a greater height than the tower, with slit windows and a plain parapet. Close to the porch are two mass dials (sundials). Inside the church is a four-bay arcade carried on alternate circular and octagonal piers. There are two aumbries, one in the north wall, the other in the south wall.
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The font dates from the 12th century and is set on a hexagonal stem. In the south wall is a piscina and there are aumbries on each side of the altar. The pews, communion rail and altar screen date from the 19th century. The church contains an 18th-century Royal coat of arms, and on the walls are memorial plaques from the 18th and 19th centuries.
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It should be raised at least two steps above the nave, and the altar should also be raised. Chancel and nave should be separated by a roodscreen, "that most beautiful and Catholick appendage to a church". This was a radical recommendation–the pamphlet points out that not one modern church had such a screen. The author also had a liking for sedilia and aumbries.
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On the south side there were also two aumbries (cupboards). There is a stone staircase which lead to a first-floor room - accommodation for the chantry priest. The arch into the organ chamber was built in 1885 as was the choir vestry which is lit by a window to the right. To the left of the Communion Table, prior to the Reformation, was a large statue of St Peter.
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Running water was supplied in lead pipes, and where there were taps they were bronze, although in most cases in England metal fittings have been removed since the dissolution of the monasteries.Greene, pp. 115-16. The monks' towels were kept nearby in cupboards called aumbries (derived from the Latin armarium or from Medieval Latin almarium).Francis Aidan Gasquet, English Monastic Life, The Antiquary's Books, London: Methuen, 1904, , p. 19.
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The carved marble font is late 12th century with possible restoration and has been described as "one of the finest Norman fonts in the country". The south wall of the chancel and the east wall of the north chapel contain piscina and the east wall of the chancel contains aumbries. A 15th-century traceried screen between the nave and chancel was restored and extended in the late 19th century. The chancel floor is made-up of patterned encaustic tiles.
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The corbels elsewhere in the nave have an uncertain function; they possibly supported the centring over which the vault was built. As well as a piscina on the south side of the chancel, there are piscinae in both transepts (indicating that they would originally have had altars); the piscina in the south transept has an ogee arch and recesses for aumbries. The font has a 14th-century appearance, but may be older. Around the walls are plaques dating from the 18th and 19th centuries.
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Its side walls originally had three bays with similar windows but have been altered. It has three aumbries, one with a small piscina. The nave has five bays and is contemporary with the quire, its south wall is much altered but three external buttresses remain. When the church was enlarged in 1818 most of the north wall was removed and replaced by columns to accommodate an aisle, four large square-headed windows were inserted on the south side, the south porch was built in 1823 and a north porch built in the new annexe.
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The upper level is moulded top and bottom, with each side paneled with inset tracery and quatrefoils, and is supported by scrolled brackets set on an inset base. The 13th-century south aisle contains the church square-paneled and plank south door, that is recessed to the same style as the chancel south door. A further small plank door at the south aisle north-east wall is within a pointed doorway with a continuous moulded surround, an entrance to a previous rood loft, defined externally by the south aisle turret. To the east of the door are twin aumbries.
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The "splendid" and unusual fitting contrasts with the simplicity of the surrounding Norman architecture. The font dates from the 14th century, and consists of plain square bowl supported by a central column and four corner shafts. In the chancel are two square-headed aumbries, and set in the north chancel wall is a weathered piece of sculpture dating from the 11th or 13th century; this was moved from the outside of the church in 1948. On the north wall of the nave are the remains of a 17th-century painted inscription, and on the south wall is a painted panel bearing the Royal arms of Queen Victoria.
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The kitchen and fireplace survive, as do the two principal rooms to the south, the southernmost of which was the only room to connect with the upper floor; a private stair leading up from it to what was probably the great hall.Campbell, Page 195 The kitchen has an arch, a large window, and aumbries, together with a serving hatch in the adjoining passageway. The upper floors, with their fireplaces and fine moulded windows, were reached via the round tower entered from the courtyard. The ornate entrance off Seagate has attracted some debate as to its origin, being visually more ecclesiastical than baronial in appearance, variously described as 'Saxon', 'Norman', or 'Scottish Gothic' in style.
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