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Fountains Abbey |
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Fountains Abbey North Yorkshire Fountains abbey most famous house in the British Isles along side Rievaulx abbey. Fountains was founded near to the River Skell on 27 December 1132, and known from its earliest days as Fountains. The abbey was settled by a group of dissident Benedictine monks who has failed in their attempt to reform the abbey of St Mary’s at York. They were later turn into Cistercian Order in mainly thanks to Abbot Richard in 1133.
In 1780’, saw the first ever-archaeological excavations by John Martin, who explored the chapter house to identify the graves of abbots known to have been buried. J Walbran substantially cleared the abbey of debris in 1840 and 1854. William St John Hope was digging at Fountains in 1887 to 1888 and again in 1904. J Arthir Reeve made a recording of the ruins in 1873 and 1876. Archaeological excavation in 1980 revealed not only an earlier and unsuspected edifice, but also an earlier temporary timber building built in the lat summer of 1133 by Geoffrey d’ Ainai. Later study of the surviving cloister rangers revealed the substantial remains of an earlier cloister layout, showing the third Cistercian abbey to be built at Fountains. Geoffrey d’ Ainai timber church aligned east to west and a two storey domestic building aligned north to south, apparently the refectory on the ground floor with a dormitory above. Neither building was complete, and the east and west walls of the church were cut away by the foundations of later building. Only their postholes survived, and they themselves were partly cut away by the foundations of the south transept of a small stone church of earlier date than that which still survives.
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The Official Fountains Abbey Site |
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Or see the Marrick Priory Documents for yourself on this website |
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Fountains survived to become the richest
Cistercian house in Britain with an assessed income of £1,115
in 1535. It was suppressed for four years later in 1768; the abbey
site was incorporated into parkland of Studley Royal, which ensured
the survival of its buildings as a landscape feature. The abbey
was taken into state care in 1966, and owned by the National Trust
although; the ruins have been open to the public since 1850’s. Today
Fountains stands as one of the best preserved Cistercian monasteries
in Europe.