Cistercian Abbey of Kirkstall, Yorkshire.

Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire, was founded in 1147 by a group of twelve monks from Fountains Abbey under the guidance of their prior, Alexander, colonised the site at Barnoldswick. In 1152 the community relocated to the present site of Kirkstall, and remained here until the dissolution of the abbey in 1539. The abbey buildings escaped the wholesale destruction and plunder that occurred elsewhere; most were left standing and used for agricultural purposes; this is perhaps why Kirkstall is now the most complete set of Cistercian ruins in Britain. Kirkstall was founded by Henry de Lacy, baron of Pontefract, who was one of the leading landholders in the North. The abbey’s coat of arms, however, is actually based on those of the Peitivin family, who gave the monks the site at Kirkstall. Like most other Cistercian abbeys in England, the twelfth century was for Kirkstall a time of growth and expansion, when the community developed the abbey precinct and acquired lands and holdings. From the thirteenth century patronage waned and the history of the abbey was marked by highs and lows. The Kirkstall monks, like their Cistercian contemporaries, were embroiled in legal wrangling over their own lands and rights, they were caught up in business relating to the state and the Order, and were affected by social and economic problems that swept the country such as the Black Death, wars and taxation. Nevertheless, the monks made a significant contribution in the areas of trade, industry and technological innovation. The lion’s share of the building work at Kirkstall was completed before the end of the 12th century, and the chief buildings were finished during Alexander’s abbacy (1147-82). The Foundation History of the house explains that the church, monks’ dormitory and refectory, lay-brothers’ dormitory and refectory, chapter-house, cloister and other necessary offices within the abbey were all built in wood and stone, and covered with fine tiles made of fired clay and stone slabs known as ‘thackstones’; remains of both types of roofing material have been found. In the fifteenth century the roofs were recovered with lead sheets. The community quarried Bramley Fall stone, a hard, coarse-grained granite, which was resistant to bad weather. It was transported from quarries across the river. Remains of the wooden jetty where the stone was landed have been recovered, as well as several slabs that must have been dropped during transportation. As Alexander endeavoured to conserve the abbey’s woods, timber was sought elsewhere. The monks and lay-brothers worked together to erect the buildings, and Henry de Lacy himself laid some of the foundation stones in the church, financing the remainder of the work. Skilled stonemasons were brought in to complete the carving.(6) Excavation of the site in the 1950s recovered traces of a twelfth-century forge which may have been used in the construction of the abbey. The building-work was not only laborious and time-consuming, but expensive, and in 1186 Kirkstall was amongst the eight Yorkshire houses that owed Aaron, the Jew of Lincoln, the combined sum of 6400 marks.

Kirkstall is relatively well represented by a wide range of surviving sources. The Foundation of the Abbey of Kirkstall, dates from the early thirteenth century and survives only in an early fifteenth-century copy now in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. The first part of this is a key source for the early history of the abbey, as it contains a full account of the foundation of the house and the first five abbots; this covers the period from 1147 to 1210. This section was probably written by Hugh of Kirkstall, who became a monk of Kirkstall c. 1183-4, and also wrote the Foundation of Fountains Abbey. The second part of The Foundation of the Abbey of Kirkstall simply lists the nine abbots who presided over the abbey from 1210-84. The third and final section includes important details concerning the history of the abbey in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. It contains a miscellany of information relating to the financial plight of the house at this time, a list of their possessions in 1284 and 1301, grants of royal protection and Abbot Hugh’s lengthy letter to his community from Gascony, reporting on his meeting with the king.

The Dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII brought an end to monastic life at Kirkstall. Following the completion of the Valor Ecclesiasticus, the survey commissioned by the king to assess the value of the religious houses in the country, two royal commissioners, Doctors Layton and Legh, visited 121 religious houses in the North. They travelled over one thousand miles between spring 1535 and autumn 1536 to compile a report on the state of the religious life in the North, based on five pieces of information: the chastity of the monks, evidence of the veneration of relics, the financial state of the house, the name of the founder, whether any members of the community would agree to give up the religious life to take their place, once more, in secular life. During this grand tour of the North, Layton and Legh gained a reputation for their unpleasant manner and rigorous questioning. The couple arrived at Kirkstall after their visitation of Fountains and Ripon, and reported three cases of sodomy, veneration of an object said to be the girdle of St Bernard and promoted as an aid for women in child-birth, and an annual income of £329. The founder at this time was the king. These findings were recorded in the infamous ‘Black Book’ which was read out to Parliament in 1536 as evidence of the poor state of religious life. This paved the way for the first phase of the dissolution, the suppression of religious houses with an annual income under £200. Kirkstall, like most of the Cistercian houses in the North, escaped this first stage of suppression but finally surrendered in November 1539.