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EGGLESTONE ABBEY

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The now ruined Egglestone Abbey was founded between 1195 and 1198 for a small number of Premonstratensian canons. It was impoverished throughout its existence; a state that was exacerbated by its location in the Borders where it was ravaged by the Scots in 1315 and by the English in 1348. The abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1540 and in 1548 it was granted to Robert Strelley who began its conversion into a secular residence. After a series of secular owners, it was sold in 1770 to John Morritt of Rokeby in whose family it remained until being placed in State care in 1925. The standing remains show that the monastery did not conform to the most common layout. Instead of the abbey church forming the north range of the cloister, it forms the south range and is offset to the east so that the remaining cloister buildings lie in a square to the north west of the nave and north transept. The church's offset position is due to it being rebuilt in the mid-late 13th century. The original late 12th century church was much smaller. In the late 15th century, the roof was altered. In addition to the chapter house, located next to the north transept of the church, the east cloister range included a two-storeyed structure built in the early 13th century. This contained the canons dormitory and, on the ground floor, what is believed to be the infirmary. The standing remains of the north clositer are almost entirely of late 12th or early 13th century date and include the canons' refectory and warming house. The west cloister range was built in two phases; the early and late 13th century. The late 13th century range includes an undercroft used for storage and cellarage. To the west of the standing abbey remains are a series of earthworks representing the possible sites of ancillary buildings. The site is in the care of English Heritage.

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NZ 0625 1510. Remains of (NAT) Egglestone Abbey (NR) (Premonstratensian founded AD 1198 (NAT)). (1)

The Abbey of St Mary and St John the Baptist, see pamphlet. (2)

Ruins of Egglestone Abbey, Premonstratensian Abbey. Church and cloister, first built 1195-1225, presbytery rebuilt c1250; nave widened to south, south transept rebuilt and west range constructed 1275-1300; cloister ranges converted to house in mid-16th century. Church in transitional Early English and Decorated styles. The abbey was founded between 1195 and 1198 by the de Multon family, as a daughter house of Easby. It was a poor house, suffering heavy losses in the 14th century Scottish wars. After dissolution in 1540 it was granted to Robert Strelley. By the 19th century the house had been converted to farm labourer's cottages. (3-5)

Existing survey revised by RCHME during a project on scheduled monuments in County Durham.

Between the abbey and the Abbey Cottages to the west, lie a series of slight earthworks no more than 0.3 m high. Two of these scarps are angular and may represent the foundations of a building abutting the cloister; a short length of earthen bank is preserved; and a trackway skirts the north-west corner of the abbey aligned NE-SW. In the fields to the south of the abbey lie the remains of a Medieval field system comprising fields of ridge-and-furrow cultivation divided by low banks and scarps no more than 0.5 m high. Immediately south of the abbey, scarps and a bank separate what would seem to have been two pasture fields from the ridge-and-furrow to the
south and east. The west field features an oval depression 0.6 m deep and the east field has an angular trench like feature which may be a robber trench exploiting the foundations of an early building. In addition, roughly 100 m south-east of the abbey is located a circular earthwork no more than 9 m in diameter and 0.8 m high, which may have been a stack stand. (6)

This source contains additional information. (7)

NZ 0623 1510. Egglestone Abbey Premonstratensian monastery: inner precinct, monastic enclosures & post-medieval house. Scheduled RSM No 23220.

The now ruined Egglestone Abbey was founded between 1195 and 1198 for a small number of Premonstratensian canons. It was impoverished throughout its existence; a state that was exacerbated by its location in the Borders where it was ravaged by the Scots in 1315 and by the English in 1348. The abbey was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1540 and in 1548 it was granted to Robert Strelley who began its conversion into a secular residence. After a series of secular owners, it was sold in 1770 to John Morritt of Rokeby in whose family it remained until being placed in State care in 1925.

The standing remains show that the monastery did not conform to the most common layout. Instead of the abbey church forming the north range of the cloister, it forms the south range and is offset to the east so that the remaining cloister buildings lie in a square to the north west of the nave and north transept. The church's offset position is due to it being rebuilt in the mid-late 13th century. The original late 12th century church was much smaller. In the late 15th century, the roof was altered. In addition to the chapter house, located next to the north transept of the church, the east cloister range included a two-storeyed structure built in the early 13th century. This contained the canons dormitory and, on the ground floor, what is believed to be the infirmary. The standing remains of the north clositer are almost entirely of late 12th or early 13th century date and include the canons' refectory and warming house. The west cloister range was built in two phases; the early and late 13th century. The late 13th century range includes an undercroft used for storage and cellarage. To the west of the standing abbey remains are a series of earthworks representing the possible sites of ancillary buildings. (8)

These sources are additional references and available in the NMR library. (9-10)

NZ 0625 1510 Egglestone Abbey. During November 2000 English Heritage carried out an archaeological field investigation and survey of the area around Egglestone Abbey. Low eartworks immediately beyond the abbey ruins to the west comprise small enclosures (at least one may be the remains of a former building abutting the cloister), a linear hollow (called a trackway in Ref. 6 above, but is more likely to be the remains of the channel which carried water to the rere-dorter drain) and a hollow-way leading to the valley floor of Thorsgill Beck.
The remains of at least three enclosures are visible in the field immediately south of the abbey (they are the two pasture fields mentioned in Ref. 6 above). These may be the remains of garden compartments belonging to the post-Dissolution house or paddocks and allotments for the labourers who were living in the house after it had ceased to be a mansion. The western enclosure contains the most internal detail including a linear depression which could be the site of a former building (as suggested in Ref. 6 above) or be the remnants of a monastic fishpond.
Remains of ridge and furrow cultivation is visible beyond the enclosures to the south together with a terraced track. The northern boundary of the field is followed by a ha-ha. The circular earthwork described in Ref. 6 above has been described separately (NZ). Record NZ 01 NE 27 also relates to an earthwork in this field.
A detailed description of these earthwoks is included in the illustrated EH Survey Report - 'The Medieval and Later Landscape at Egglestone Abbey, Teesdale, County Durham' . (11)

This source contains additional information. (12)

This site is listed in the English Heritage Handbook for 2009/2010. (13)

Detailed description of the mid-13th century cloister arcade. (14)

SOURCE TEXT

( 1) Ordnance Survey Map (Scale / Date)

OS 6" Provisional Edition 1954

( 2) by Rose Graham and P K Baillie Reynolds 1958 Egglestone Abbey, Yorkshire

(3) List of Buildings of Special Architectural or Historic Interest

Teesdale, 28-OCT-1987 Page(s)62

(4) by Nikolaus Pevsner 1966 Yorkshire, the North Riding

The Buildings of England Page(s)155-8

(5) edited by William Page 1914 The Victoria history of the county of York, North Riding, volume one

The Victoria history of the counties of England Page(s)113-6

(6) Field Investigators Comments

Peter Topping/22-AUG-1991/RCHME: Durham SAMs Project

(7) Egglestone Abbey/ink survey

(8) Scheduled Monument Notification

22-OCT-1993

(9) Katy Kenyon 1999 Barnard Castle, County Durham, Egglestone Abbey, North Yorkshire, Bowes Castle, North Yorkshire [guidebook]

(10) by David Knowles and R Neville Hadcock 1971 Medieval religious houses in England and Wales

Page(s)188

(11) Field Investigators Comments

Christopher Dunn/ 01-DEC-2000/ English Heritage: Egglestone Abbey Survey

(12) Egglestone Abbey/report

(13) 2009 English Heritage Visitor Handbook 2009/10

Page(s)255

(14) Journal of the British Archaeological Association

159, 2006 Page(s)125-8

(15) English Heritage 2004 Heritage unlocked: Guide to free sites in Yorkshire and the north east

Page(s)60-61

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A medieval and later quarry; during the medieval period it belonged to the Abbot of Egglestone Abbey.

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