The church was vaulted and cruciform in shape, with a square presbytery and a low central tower containing bells. It was aisled throughout, with a pair of chapels on the east side of each transept. There was no triforium, but a narrow gallery surmounted by a clerestory of triple lancet windows ran above each bay of the arcade, as can be seen in the surviving section in the south transept. The vaulting sprang directly from the top of the arcade. The wall at the eastern end the presbytery, probably built after 1260, has a large window which features an upper rose and elaborate tracery; the aisle windows are simple paired lancets recessed within an arch. In the nave, the south aisle has plain triple lancets set high in the wall to avoid the cloister roof. The north aisle windows by contrast have richly decorated cusped tracery, reflecting the changes in taste over the long period of construction, and suggesting that this was among the last parts of the church to be finished, probably in the very late thirteenth or early fourteenth centuries. The west wall of the church also has a large window, the tracery of which was destroyed in a collapse during the eighteenth century. Surviving fragments show that it was built in a "freer and more advanced style" than other parts of the church, and suggest a date around the turn of the fourteenth century.[5]

Internally, the church was subdivided into several areas. The high altar was against the east wall of the presbytery, flanked by two smaller altars on the side walls.[5] To the west, under the tower, were the monks' choir stalls where they sat during services, and further west was a pulpitum or rood screen, which blocked access to the ritual areas of the church.[6] In the nave, the lay brothers had their own choir stalls and altar for services.[5][7] The monks of Netley kept up a schedule of services and prayer both day and night following the canonical hours; a staircase in the south transept went up to the monks' dormitory, allowing them to conveniently attend night services.[5][8] The lay brothers had their own entrance to the church at the west end via a covered gallery from their accommodation.[5]

Unlike rival orders such as the Benedictines, who allowed the nave to be used by parishioners and visitors, the Cistercians officially reserved their churches solely for the use of the monastic community. Others had to worship in a separate chapel in the abbey grounds close to the main gate.[7][9] Over time this rule was relaxed to allow pilgrims to visit shrines, as at Hailes Abbey with its relic of the Holy Blood, and to allow the construction of tombs and chantries for patrons and wealthy benefactors of the house, as in the churches of other orders.[10] Excavated sculpture shows that the church at Netley featured a number of elaborate tombs and monuments.

Architectural detail - The Mistery of Netley Abbey

The Mistery of Netley Abbey - Index