Article

Fountains Abbey

In 1132 when 13 monks arrived in the River Skell valley, Yorkshire, little did they know that the abbey they were building would become one of the richest in Europe.

Nestled away in N Yorkshire, Fountains Abbey is a ruin of one of the largest Cistercian monasteries in England. It is 30 minutes drive from Harrogate and 3 miles south-west of Ripon. A welcome day out here for my husband following his cataract operation, saw him take his camera and use his new found vision to capture this lovely, spiritual place. I am so proud of the photos he took having only had his operation last week. The Abbey was founded in 1132, by 13 monks who wanted their Order to return to the simple monastic life. Within three years the settlement at Fountains Abbey had been admitted to the austere Cistercian Order. They had been thrown out of their own Abbey for wanting to return to simple monastic rule. They found the peace they wanted here. It soon became wealthy through wool production, lead mining, cattle rearing, horse breeding and stone quarrying. It remained important until it was closed down in 1539 in the Dissolution of the Monasteries ordered by Henry VIII The abbot, prior and monks were sent away and the wealth plundered. The abbey is a Grade I listed building and includes Studley Royal Water Gardens and was awarded World Heritage Status in 1987.

Fountains Abbey is near Ripon54.11508474116211, -1.575133665464823

Dissolution of the monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, occurred between 1536 and 1541 when Henry 8th disbanded Roman Catholic monasteries, friaries, convents and abbeys in England, Wales and Ireland. He seized the wealth and dismissed the occupants, some being killed

The money was used for Henry's war campaigns in Europe. He gave himself the authority to do this by splitting England's ties with the Vatican and declaring himself head of the English church.

The Abbey over the centuries was reduced to a ruin and is now one of the best examples of a ruined abbey in Britain.

Studley Royal Water Gardens

Studeley Water Gardens which stands on old Abbey grounds is at the other end of the Skell valley and was created in the 1700s. It is a beautiful place of tranquillity and peace.

Chorister's House.

This lovely house was originally a music building but is now an accommodation place for visitors to the area. It can hold up to ten people.

Imagine staying here ! The views in this area are stunning.

I hope you get an opportunity to visit.

Updated March 18, 2016

Comments

VeronicaJul 8, 2017

I haven't heard of that one. TY

frankbeswickJul 8, 2017

We have some local distinctions in flora and fauna, but they are not vast, and aquatic fauna do not seem to vary much between areas. One exception is the presence of Arctic Char in certain Lake District lakes. This is a relic of the ice age.

VeronicaJul 8, 2017

Frank and Derdriu

I agree. Our climate precludes distinct fauna and flora really.

VeronicaJul 8, 2017

TY Derdriu

I didn't go in to The Choristers' House but it is available for rental for holiday-let. Imagine staying there in that house on the estate. A dream come true!

frankbeswickJul 7, 2017

Derdriu, I don't think that there is any stretch of water in Britain that has a distinct aquatic flora.

DerdriuMarrinerJul 7, 2017

Veronica, Thank you for taking us along on your family outing to Fountains Abbey and Studley water gardens. Do you know how the Choristers House looks on the inside? Are the water gardens known for any particular aquatic fauna and flora or is it the clean smell and the play of light on, and the quality of, the water?

frankbeswickMar 19, 2016

The phenomenon of ghosts does not admit of one explanation. The stone tape theory does explain the experiences that people have in places, but not all of them, especially when something interactive with humans seems to be going on.

To stay on monasteries, it would be interesting to spend some time alone in ruined abbeys to see what can be experienced.

VeronicaMar 19, 2016

I do believe in stone tape memories. Maybe Frank you could do an article on it. I don't believe in ghosts but I do believe that stones contain a continued energy, an electricity which triggers under conditions of electricity sparked by high human emotion.

frankbeswickMar 19, 2016

Don't monastic ruins have a powerful atmosphere. but old buildings often do, as if something lingers, written as a trace in their ancient stones. Insensitive people can walk through them and feel nothing, but the sensitive feel their atmosphere. The spirituality of a place lingers on even when it is abandoned and ruined.

frankbeswickMar 19, 2016

Wonder of wonders, after telling you in my previous post that I had earned no money from Wizzley, I have made an Amazon sale! Yippee! Thirty six cents, but it's a start.

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

I must concur with what Veronica says, there are so many talented people on this site. What is more, they are nice people, good to know. I really enjoy communicating with them. I have made no money from Wizzley, but I have earned what really matters, good company.

I only turned on to check some business emails, but I am glad that I turned on to read Veronica's comment. It is a nice comment to go to bed on.

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

There are so many multi talented people here on Wizzley. Every day is like being in a glorious library. We are very blessed with our community.

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

Thank you Mira. Ruins like these are so well preserved that we can see what the original really did look like.

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

I am always pleased when I read your response, Mira.

MiraMar 18, 2016

The ruins are magnificent. And learning church history from you and Frank is always a pleasure.

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

I have just done some research. There is a condition known as Androgen insensitivity syndrome. The individuals who suffer it have both X and Y chromosomes, which makes them male, but they cannot respond to male hormone and so have female bodies and sometimes characteristics of both sexes. Could Elizabeth have been one of these people?

The condition is inherited through a recessive gene on the X chromosome, so from Anne Boleyn [?] but she had no other descendants and so we cannot check.

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

I don't think that she was male, but she might have been one of those individuals who have the physical traits of both sexes. All this fits with the secrecy about her body that you mention. She clearly had a visible female shape, but her dress might have hidden embarrassing anomalies in her form.

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

"feminine ability " leads us to a completely different issue as to was Elizabeth 1st really a man, a male child substituted in infancy for a deceased Elizabeth. She never married and resisted it fully and wholeheartedly. would only allow one doctor all her life to tend to her and one lot of personal maids who had been with her from childhood to help her dress, she was bald and shaved each day. She wore very high neck clothes to cover her Adam's apple with necklaces too.

But that comment is the stuff for another post on Wizzley perhaps. :)

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

The decision that no rule other than the Benedictine one be followed applied only to monks. The friars [mendicants] were not touched by it. There is also a rule operating from the Middle Ages that no new orders can be founded. However, this does not prohibit the founding of societies, such as the Society of Jesus [Jesuits]or the White Fathers.

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

Elizabeth survived through a combination of cunning, a feminine ability to manipulate people and cruelty when she thought necessary, besides being very intelligent. Some of the cruelty came from her horrid underlings, such as Cecil, who was responsible for the death of Mary Queen of Scots. Elizabeth would make a point of stopping on her journeys to speak to peasant women, who were awestruck that one so high as her would even look their way. I know that those of us who come from a Catholic background have little time for her, but I don't think that she was anywhere near as bad as her father.

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

You are a genius

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

In response to your message. There was a papal edict that all monastic orders in the RC church follow the Benedictine rule, so the Celtic orders were forced to become Benedictines. Thus the now extinct Cluniacs, the Cistercians, Carthusian and Camaldolese [who only have two monasteries] and the Sauvignacs, who existed as a Benedictine break off before they merged with the Cistericans, all follow or followed the Benedictine rule. In Scotland some Celtic monks refused and lingered on in the Western Isles until the twelve hundreds.

Other orders follow different rule. The mendicant orders follow either the rule of St Francis, St Augustine or in the case of the Carmelites the rule of St Albert.

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

Henry was a dreadful cruel man . So many people were hideously executed in his reign The Tudors were weak until Elizabeth 1st. The cruelty was a cover for their weakness, Elizabeth 1st included.

They knew they had no real claim to the throne.

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

The dissolution of the monasteries was followed by the atrocity of the Pilgrimage of Grace. This happened when northern Catholics protested to Henry. He got them to disperse with promises of consultation, then he slaughtered them. Henry was a tyrant.

The monasteries ran schools, medical and other social services across England. All were shut down, the great libraries sold abroad or for scrap paper. It was a massive act of vandalism that wrecked English culture. The iconoclasm that followed under the puppet regime of his weak son Edward destroyed 95% of England's art.

Yet history books used to say that the English reformation was a good thing as the church had too much land. But the reformation gave no land to the common people, but only to the already rich.

By the way Henry did not have the title Doctor of the Church, but Defender of the Faith, a title that the British monarchs still retain.

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

The wizzley link for my wars of the roses pages here

https://wizzley.com/the-wars-of-the-roses-in-a-nutshell-a-very-brief-guide/

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

It's the British intellectual property rights, health and safety rules, licensing rights etc. that keeps Britain in an absolute straight-jacket for doing lovely things such as this.

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

Once he had split with Rome. he knew that there would be no complaints from Rome about his treatment of the monasteries, abbeys and convents. He himself remained Roman in his beliefs and religious practices but he felt that he must have a strong heir to continue the Tudor dynasty. He assumed that a strong heir was male. He divorced Catherine as she was aging and had a daughter. How wrong he was. England's strongest monarch ever was his daughter by Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth 1st .

Nowadays of course we know that it is the male's sperm that determines gender so it was his doing that he had daughters.

He plundered the religious houses of their possessions without fear of repercussions from Rome. He had previously been granted title Defender of the Faith by the Catholic Church.

The Tudor dynasty was a very short lived one. None of his children had children themselves. But then, The Tudors had no legal right to the throne in the first place...... But that is a story on another of my Wizzley pages "The Wars of the roses in a nutshell "

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

Yes the first time I went many years ago, there was a Gregorian chant tape which tripped as people entered the ruin. But it isn't there now, probably something about licenses and health and safety in our nation these days :)

The whole atmosphere is really relaxing and spiritual.

blackspanielgalleryMar 18, 2016

Frank has an excellent idea. I believe such an activity would be considered respectful enough to perhaps get permission.

blackspanielgalleryMar 18, 2016

I knew Henry VIII split with Rome, but I did not know he took over Church property. I just thought news traveled slowly and many priests assumed somehow he had permission to take control. Before his break he had been given the title Doctor of the Church, so I assumed there was no one to contradict his claims. Ah, I know too little of the history of England. Thanks to making the point of the ruthless practices.

frankbeswickMar 17, 2016

I wonder what it would be like to take a CD of Gregorian chant into the ruins and sit listening to it in a place where it was once sung by monks. It would be an awesome experience. I love Gregorian chant.

VeronicaMar 17, 2016

I think you would enjoy it as it still has a spiritual, ethereal beauty about it. And whilst I may be mistaken, I sense you have that about you too.

jptanabeMar 17, 2016

Beautiful photos! I would love to have the chance to visit some day.

Dissolution of the monasteries

The money was used for Henry's war campaigns in Europe. He gave himself the authority to do this by splitting England's ties with the Vatican and declaring himself head of the English church.

The Abbey over the centuries was reduced to a ruin and is now one of the best examples of a ruined abbey in Britain.

Comments

VeronicaJul 8, 2017

I haven't heard of that one. TY

frankbeswickJul 8, 2017

VeronicaJul 8, 2017

Frank and Derdriu

I agree. Our climate precludes distinct fauna and flora really.

VeronicaJul 8, 2017

TY Derdriu

I didn't go in to The Choristers' House but it is available for rental for holiday-let. Imagine staying there in that house on the estate. A dream come true!

frankbeswickJul 7, 2017

Derdriu, I don't think that there is any stretch of water in Britain that has a distinct aquatic flora.

DerdriuMarrinerJul 7, 2017

frankbeswickMar 19, 2016

VeronicaMar 19, 2016

frankbeswickMar 19, 2016

Wonder of wonders, after telling you in my previous post that I had earned no money from Wizzley, I have made an Amazon sale! Yippee! Thirty six cents, but it's a start.

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

There are so many multi talented people here on Wizzley. Every day is like being in a glorious library. We are very blessed with our community.

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

Thank you Mira. Ruins like these are so well preserved that we can see what the original really did look like.

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

I am always pleased when I read your response, Mira.

MiraMar 18, 2016

The ruins are magnificent. And learning church history from you and Frank is always a pleasure.

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

You are a genius

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

frankbeswickMar 18, 2016

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

The wizzley link for my wars of the roses pages here

https://wizzley.com/the-wars-of-the-roses-in-a-nutshell-a-very-brief-guide/

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

It's the British intellectual property rights, health and safety rules, licensing rights etc. that keeps Britain in an absolute straight-jacket for doing lovely things such as this.

VeronicaMar 18, 2016

blackspanielgalleryMar 18, 2016

Frank has an excellent idea. I believe such an activity would be considered respectful enough to perhaps get permission.

blackspanielgalleryMar 18, 2016

frankbeswickMar 17, 2016

VeronicaMar 17, 2016

I think you would enjoy it as it still has a spiritual, ethereal beauty about it. And whilst I may be mistaken, I sense you have that about you too.

jptanabeMar 17, 2016

Beautiful photos! I would love to have the chance to visit some day.