Roche Abbey Visit

For the past few years we have, oddly, found ourselves visiting Abbeys. A lot of this has been driven by our Englih Heritage membership. Yesterday, we visited Roche Abbey. It is nestled, like many Abbeys are, deep within a valley. This valley happened to be in South Yorkshire. Not far from the town of Maltby. I am not sure what Maltby is famous for, if anything (it had a munitions factory during WW2. When Londoners from Enfield came to work, created a district of housing called, little London). Again, like some of the other Abbeys the approach is narrow and descending. The added bonus to the access to Roche Abbey, is that this approach is 'cobbled'. A marvellous, unplanned, test for our aging vehicle! 

The impressive transept remains at Roche Abbey.

Car, intact, arrived at the car park. A term used loosely. We then went further down the pot holed path/road to the gatehouse of the abbey. There was also a visitor centre, a house. I'm not aware of the history of the house. It was fairly large, even though adapted to its current purpose. It seems on first impression to have been home to a wealthy family/landlord or, perhaps, a lodge of some kind? 

The walled remains of what was the Abbey and the outside buildings.

The dissolution marked its end. From the history it seems there were 14 monks present. The local community then systematically dismantled the abbey and accommodation buildings of, stone, lead and timbers. We have what is left. Re-excavated in the 1920's (the low lying walls of the site appears to have been turfed over by, Capability Brown, for the, Earl if Scarborough), we have what was left. The most impressive of which is the transepts; imposing, dominating and French in style (and, as we discovered, an ideal stone umbrella).

The highly engineered river diversions were quite a feature of the Abbey grounds. Providing the latrines with a self flushing mechanism The river both run under, and through buildings depending on the needs of the Monks. Pretty sophisticated for the time.

The layout of the excavated walls give a good impression of the size and scale of the abbey. It was one of the largest in the country. The land around it was particularly fertile for farming. It does help having visited a monastery, that is a fully working monastery, in Bukfastleigh. It gives you an idea of the large Abbey attached to accommodation and then, the gardens laid out; herbal gardens providing medicinal ingredients; ingredients for foods. Orchards for fruit & rivers for fish. The Abbeys in their prime would have been fairly self-sustaining which was, ultimately, the point of the monastic orders: being able to retreat into solitude, away from society. This necessitated self-sufficiency and when you look at Buckfast Abbey you can see how this is, in a way, achieved. It also provides an idea of why Abbeys were sited why they were. (My wife's question of why then is Whitby Abbey where it is? Set atop a headland and not in the usual valley setting. It looks like the land was given to the founder. It also seems there was a previous religious building on that site, so maybe Whitby was convenience? It would certainly have been, separate, from the town. So there would have been solitude, without being hidden in a wooded Valley. There may also be a big factor to due with the closeness of the sea and the supply of fish this could have provided?) 

A Panoram giving an idea of the size and scope of the entire site.

It is, therefore, a very pleasant site to see and also, tranversable on crutches too, an added bonus. Well worth a trip out. Ideally in the sunshine. Although the hail and grey cloud gave it a certain 'Atmosphere'.