Ruins of St. Mary's Abbey

Ruins of St. Mary's Abbey, in the Museum Gardens

The gardens contain several buildings dating back to the medieval period, most of them relating to St Mary's Abbey. The Benedictine Abbey's origins date back to 1086 when Alan Count of Brittany granted St Olave's Church and the adjoining land to the monk Stephen of Whitby, who became the first abbot of St. Mary's. When St Olave's Church became too small, a larger church in a Romanesque style was built nearby, the foundation stone of which was laid in 1089 by William II. This was replaced between 1270 and 1279 by a church in a Gothic style. The abbey became the wealthiest monastery in the North of England, worth over £2,085 a year before it was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1539. Over the next 200 years the abbey fell into disrepair and the abbey church was largely dismantled for its stone.

Photo 369, May 2011