THE MUNIMENT ROOMS
In the south east corner of Chamber Court , where the east wing of the quadrangle meets the College Chapel , stands what is called the Muniment Tower . From the Vestry at its foot , a spiral staircase leads up to the two ‘ muniment rooms ’, which house the College archives . Not very many Wykehamists penetrate to these rooms , and not so very many more historical scholars : it is to be hoped that more of both will do so in future . For these two rooms - and two others , of which more - house a truly remarkable archive , an effectively unbroken record of the management of the school and its estates from the foundation to the present day . The only English school archive that is at all comparable to it is that of Eton , and that is a full fifty years younger .
William of Wykeham , in founding the College , was from the first concerned to ensure that its records should be carefully conserved , as his statutes reveal . Individual rubrics in the statutes enjoin the keeping of records of the College ’ s estate accounts and leases , the Bursars ’ annual accounts , a register of scholars , and of Hall Books that would record the expenses of those eating in Hall . All these ‘ munimenta ’ were to be deposited ultimately in a chest in the Treasury , what is now Lower Muniment Room . The College ’ s oldest records are thus housed - uniquely - in the purpose built room in which they were always intended to be housed . The thickness of the walls of this room maintain a very even temperature , which has helped to ensure over the centuries the survival of the muniments stored there in a remarkable state of preservation .
Originally , the spiral staircase leading to the Muniment Rooms could only be reached through the Chapel . In the early days , there were real treasures deposited in the ‘ Treasury ’ as well as records , and this meant that any thief trying to lay his hands on them would be guilty not only of theft but of sacrilege too . The Lower Muniment Room , the Treasury of the Statutes , is a handsome vaulted chamber , with a chequered floor of medieval tiles , and lighted by two windows in the late gothic style , facing east and west . The corbels from which the vaulting ribs spring are decorated with four symbolic sculpted figures , representing respectively a king , a bishop and an abbot ; the fourth figure , over the doorway in the south east corner is that of St Michael , winged . It has been suggested that he is there because the accounts that were deposited in the Treasury ran from Michaelmas to Michaelmas . The furniture
Fig 1 . Lower Muniment Room , showing the two original oak chests . of the room includes two heavy , iron bound oak chests , which have been there since 1396 . A sixteenth century cabinet with ‘ linen fold ’ drawers to contain muniments lines the north wall ; a modern cupboard with plain oak doors against the south wall provides additional storage space for documents .
The design of the Upper Muniment Room is very similar , only plainer . The beamed wooden ceiling is at the level of the Chapel roof . Here are two more oak chests , moved up from the room below . But the most striking element of the furnishing of this room are the two large cabinets of drawers , specially designed for the preservation of muniments by Herbert Chitty ( College Archivist 1927-49 ). Each drawer has a wooden cover over the top , which can be drawn back , and has holes in the sides to admit ventilation . It is not entirely clear what the original purpose of this upper room was : perhaps it was designed as an auxiliary treasury . In Wykehamist lore it came to be known by the interesting but unilluminating name of Bogey Hole .
Muniments accumulate in quantity by natural growth over the years , and two more rooms are now used for their storage , Audit Room and Exchequer Room . This is rather apposite , since it was from these rooms in times past that a good many of the documents subsequently deposited in the Muniment Tower originated . They are reached by a spiral staircase leading from the south west corner of College Hall . The two rooms may once have been one , but the wooden partition that divides them is ancient . From an early time the Bursars and their clerks worked in the outer room , Exchequer Room ,
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