Byland Abbey, Byland, North Yorkshire

Photograph taken 1994 © Crown copyright. Historic England Archive ref: nmr 12443/01

An aerial view of the ruins of Byland Abbey under a blanket of snow on the North Yorkshire Moors. The Cistercian community of 36 monks and 100 lay brothers moved to this site in 1177. 25 monks plus the abbot lived here at the time of the Abbey's dissolution in November 1538. The site was given to Sir William Pickering and some of the buildings were converted into a house. This site is now in the care of English Heritage (2010).

Location

North Yorkshire Byland

Period

Medieval (Middle Ages) (1066 - 1484)

Themes

A nunnery was first documented here in 603. A monastery was founded during the abbacy of Aldhelm (c675-705). It became Benedictine in the reign of Edgar (959–975) and remained so until dissolved in 1539. The final Abbey Church was built circa 1160-70 and had 13th/14th and 15th century additions. The 431 feet (131 m) tall spire, collapsed in a storm around 1500. The west tower fell around 1550. As a result of these two collapses, less than half of the original building stands today. The abbey was closed at the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 by Henry VIII. It was sold, with all its lands, to William Stumpe, a rich merchant. He gave the abbey church to the town for continuing use as a parish church, and filled the abbey buildings with twenty looms for his cloth-weaving enterprise.
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Byland Abbey, Byland, North Yorkshire

Location

Period

Themes

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