On recognising my voice, full of alarm, they sprang up from their beds, and half naked, and clad only in their night-clothes, the instant they heard the fire in the cloisters, rushed forth through all the windows of the Dormitory, and fell to the ground with dreadful force; many were wounded and severely shaken by the severity of the fall, and shocking to relate, some had their limbs broken. The flames, however, in the meanwhile, growing stronger and stronger, and continually sending forth flakes from the church in the direction of the Refectory, first communicated with the Chapter house, then they caught the Dormitory, and after that the Refectory, and at the same instant the Ambulatory, which was near the Infirmary. After this they extended their ravages with a sudden outburst, to the whole of the Infirmary, with all the adjoining offices. All the brethren flying for refuge to the spot where I stood in the court, on seeing most of them half-naked, I attempted to regain my chamber, in order to distribute the clothes which I had there, among such as I saw stand in the greatest need thereof; but so great was the heat that had taken possession of all the approaches to the Hall, and so vast were the torrents of molten lead that were pouring down in every direction, that it rendered it impossible for even the boldest of the young men to effect an entrance.... (p. 199).
At this moment, the tower of the Church falling on its south side I was so stunned by the crash, that I fell to the ground half dead and in a swoon. Being raised by my brethren and carried to our porter’s room, I was scarcely able, until morning, to recover my right senses or my usual strength....
About the third hour of the day, the flames being now greatly subdued, we effected an entry into the church, and water being carried thither, extinguished the fire there, which had now pretty well burned out. In the choir, which was reduced to ashes, we found all the books of the holy office utterly destroyed, both Antiphonaries as well as Gradals. On entering the vestiary, however, we found all our sacred vestments and the relics of the Saints, as well as some other precious things deposited there untouched by the flames, the place being covered with a double roof of stone. Going upstairs into our muniment room, we found that, although it had been covered throughout with an arching of stone, the fire had still made its way through the wooden windows; and that, although the presses themselves appeared to be quite safe and sound, still all our muniments therein were burnt into one mass, and utterly destroyed by the intense heat of the fire, just as though they had been in a furnace red hot or an oven at a white heat. Our charters of extreme beauty, written in capital letters, adorned with golden crosses and paintings of the greatest beauty, and formed of materials of matchless value, which had been there deposited, were all destroyed. The privileges also, granted by the kings of the Mercians, documents of extreme antiquity, and of the greatest value, which were likewise most exquisitely adorned with pictures in gold, but written in Saxon characters, were all burnt. The whole of these muniments of ours, both great and small, nearly four hundred in number, were in one moment of a night, which proved to us of blackest hue, by a most shocking misfortune, lost and utterly destroyed (p. 200).