A Day In Ruins

No sunshine today – though mostly high cloud, which makes for very pleasant driving. My annoyingly electronic car has been throwing up warnings about the key battery, so I found a local dealer, and persuaded them to change it for me – which the guy did for free, though he thinks it’s a key glitch and not the actual battery. We’ll see...

Howardian Hills

I headed north out of York and into the Howardian Hills, which is listed as AONB – an Area Of Natural Beauty. It’s not the North Yorkshire Moors, which lie beyond Helmsley – this part of Yorkshire is very fertile and well farmed; the hills are rolling and there’s a mixture of managed woodland among the farms. Crop colours are turning to gold – wheat, barley, oats, with rotator crops. Farming has become so much more mechanized that farming villages are either dwindling or becoming commuter havens.

I would have stopped in Helmsley, but parking was no-go, so I followed the road on to Rievaulx. Because of the wealth in agriculture, this was an area in which the monastic communities settled – Rievaulx and Byland north of York, Jervaulx and Fountains Abbey nearer Ripon.  From  Rievaulx’s founding in 1134 by an abbot and 12 monks from Clairvaux Abbey in France, it grew to a community of 640 by the 1160s -  choir monks and lay brothers. For 400 years it was a place of prayer, of charity and hospitality, and an important landowner.

Rievaux Abbey

Then Henry VIII got annoyed with the Pope for not issuing a quick divorce, and proclaimed himself Head of the church in England. Over just five years, he disbanded all the religious communities, expropriated their income; disposed of their assets; and dispersed their former personnel. The confiscated monastic buildings were rendered uninhabitable and stripped of valuables such as lead. The income from the wealthy lands came to the royal pocket, or was sold on for favours.

Chapter House

The arches at the lower level of the refectory are rounded Norman arches

the upper level have pointed Gothic arches
- showing they were built at a later date

We all like to grumble about what English Heritage charges for admission to place like this, but they really do a good job – their signage is informative and well-designed, they maintain properties with care (so that today, for instance, was not as peaceful as I’d hoped because the grass was being mowed!), and though there’s usually a commercial aspect, they keep it separate, so it doesn’t impinge on the feeling in the ruins.

I spent a very happy couple of hours there, just wandering and soaking in the space – I find that people who like ruins like this tend to be friendly and willing to chat. The photo of me was taken by a guy who was a carpenter/joiner, and celebrating his 66th birthday by taking a day off with a friend. So interesting to meet other people for whom this is also a good way to spend a birthday!

the road to Byland

The Abbey Inn

I finally headed back through Helmsley (no castle visit today) and SatNav took me off on a little unsigned road through a lovely peaceful wood.  Coming out at the bottom, the road curved to show Byland Abbey.  I’d missed breakfast, and decided I would have lunch at the Abbey Inn – it was still grey, but mild enough that I could sit out in the garden and enjoy a ploughman’s lunch that no self-respecting ploughman would have recognized – much too posh! - but very tasty. Then I crossed the road for another hour of Abbey wanderings

Byland Abbey

The western end

As with Rievaulx, the shapes of the layout remain, and the spaces with specific function – the two parts of the church: the Quire for the monks and priests, and the Nave for the lay-brothers – the cloister, the Chapter-House, the Warming Room and the Infirmary. At Byland there is a greater number of outer buildings that have not been identified.   
It was founded as a Savigniac abbey in 1135 and was absorbed by the Cistercian order in 1147. It it was described, in the late 14th century, as "one of the three shining lights of the north". Its financial success was not as great as such abbeys as Rievaulx, but it was famed for its sheep rearing and wool exports. Its church was said to be among the finest 12th-century churches in Europe.

looking up the cloister to the west end

I had thought about going on to Jervaulx, but it would have taken too long – instead, I headed for Coxwold, which was the home of 18th-century novelist Laurence Sterne – I have to read “Tristram Shandy” and “A Sentimental Journey” again! Sadly, the rain started, so no getting out to explore. Instead I went on to Kilburn, hoping that the Mouseman Centre might be open – Robert Thompson was a furniture maker renowned particularly for his church furniture, each piece of which has his signature carving of a mouse. The current carvers still put a mouse on everything they do – but each carver has a different style of mouse. Alas: the Mouseman Visitor Centre was closed.

Every piece of furniture has a mouse somewhere

I drove out of Kilburn, seeing the Kilburn White Horse high up on the scarp above.

The Kilburn White Horse

It was designed and financed by a Victorian businessman, and was cut in 1857. He had seen the famous chalk hill figures of southern England and wanted to create something similar for his home village. When the shape of the Horse was complete, they deposited tons of lime on the naturally greyish rock beneath to whiten it. Unlike the horses in the South of England which are cut into chalk and are therefore naturally white and virtually self-preserving, the Kilburn white horse is cut into limestone, which is the wrong colour and needs artificial whitening. This was first done using gallons of whitewash, but now chalk chippings from the Yorkshire Wolds are used. The road runs very close to the Horse, but it was definitely too wet to be climbing up there today.

I headed back for York – the concert I’d planned to attend was sold out, so it was a quiet evening divided between blogging and tennis – I hope Gill’s a tennis addict, as we hit this second week!