 Byland Abbey
In the early part of the 12th century, a group of Savigniac
monks were trying to establish a colony in England, their first base
being near Preston in Lancashire, but eventually relocating to Furness
in Cumbria. This site suited their purposes very well enabling the monks
to prosper and soon they were able to send a small colony of monks to
found a daughter house. Initially the monks settled at Calder but, after
suffering a Scottish raid and then becoming caught up in a series of
monastic disputes with Furness Abbey, they eventually established a
base in the small North Yorkshire village of Coxwold. By 1177 Byland
Abbey, now under the new Cistercian rule, was finally founded having
overcome four false starts and lots of problems.
Despite the thickly wooded, swampy site they had been given, the monks built a beautiful abbey church
and an almost perfect monastic complex surrounding sizeable cloisters.
Once established Byland Abbey began to prosper, and the completed monastery
of the mid 13th century was considered to be one of the three
great monasteries of the North, alongside those at Fountains
and Rievaulx.
From hereon life at Byland Abbey appeared to be relatively calm and
uneventful, except for one occasion in 1322 when nearby Scottish raiders
pillaged the abbey. At the Suppression in 1538 there were still 25 choir
monks and an abbot in residence at Byland Abbey, and they all granted pensions on surrendering the site.
Being stripped of all saleable assets, the once magnificent buildings
were then subjected to nearly four centuries of neglect, and inevitable decay.
During the 1920s the site was cleared, excavations began, and the enormous task of consolidation
and preservation began. Substantial sections of the abbey church walls
remain standing, many of the decorative capitals and corbels found were
placed in the museum at Byland Abbey, and some amazing glazed floor
tiles were uncovered. Perhaps the best example to show the intricacy
of the patterns used by the medieval tilers, remains in situ in the
south transept chapels. It is quite evident from the sheer size and
the many fragments of elaborately carved detail, that the monks at Byland Abbey
created a spectacular church.
Today the impressive west front of the abbey church, deeply hollowed out where once a great wheel
window existed, provides a distinctive landmark to approaching visitors.
If you are fortunate enough to see this marvellous ruin bathed in
late afternoon sunlight, the full glory of the mellow sandstone
is reflected in an array of soft tones. The village of Coxwold is a little
off the beaten track, but the quiet and unspoilt location makes it all
the more fitting for such a majestic abbey. |
