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Everyone knows at least one date in English history - 1066 - the year the invading Normans defeated the English at the Battle of Hastings. In fact the conflict took place some seven miles north of Hastings, at a place then called Senlac. Here, William...

Sir Thomas Audley was given the lands of Walden Abbey by Henry VIII, and adapted the abbey buildings as his mansion. His grandson Thomas, first Earl of Suffolk, rebuilt this mansion between 1603 and 1614. The new Audley End was truly palatial in scale,...

The impressive ruins of an abbey of Premonstratensian 'white canons', on the Kent-Sussex border. They include much of the 13th to 15th-century church, the chapter house, and a picturesque 14th-century gatehouse. Now set in a landscape designed by...

Impressive ruins of a Cistercian abbey, including its unusually unaltered 12th-century church, beautiful vaulted and tile-floored chapter house, and recently re-opened crypt chapel. In a wooded Severn-side setting, not far from the Iron Bridge and...

Byland was one of the great Yorkshire Cistercian abbeys, housing at its zenith well over 200 monks and lay brothers. Much of its huge cathedralsized church survives, including the whole north side and the greater part of the 13th-century west front. The...

The picturesque Cistercian abbey of Cleeve boasts the most impressively complete and unaltered set of monastic cloister buildings in England, standing roofed and two storeys high. They include the gatehouse; the 15th-century refectory with its...

Denny Abbey has a unique and fascinating history. Founded in 1159 as a Benedictine monastery, it then became a retirement home for elderly Knights Templars. After the Templars' suppression for alleged heresy in 1308, it next passed to the Countess of...

The impressive remains of an abbey founded by Stephen, later King of England, including much of the east end and west tower of the church, the ornately decorated chapter house and the cloister buildings. Originally of the Savigniac order, it passed to...

The Cistercian abbey of Hailes was founded in 1246 by Richard of Cornwall, in thanksgiving for deliverance from shipwreck, and dissolved on Christmas Eve 1539. Though never housing large numbers of monks, it had extensive and elaborate buildings,...

The extensive remains of an Augustinian abbey, including its abbots' quarters, refectory and cloister. The substantially surviving chapter house has a frontage richly bedecked with 12th and 14th-century carving and statuary, and a fine timber roof of...

Surrounded by spectacular banks and ditches, the great medieval castle's impressive ruins stand beside the attractive market town of Helmsley. The fortress was probably begun after 1120 by Walter Espec - 'Walter the Woodpecker'. Renowned for piety as...

Standing close to Hadrian's Wall, the Augustinian priory of Lanercost was much involved in the Anglo-Scottish wars. During his last campaign in 1306-7 the mortally sick Edward I rested here for six months, before dying at Burgh-by-Sands as he prepared to...

John Fortin, a merchant who traded with Bordeaux, started building this house c. 1290. A residence and place of business, it stood on one of the busiest streets in medieval Southampton. Now restored to its mid-14th-century appearance by the removal of...

Muchelney, the atmospheric and once-remote 'great island' amid the Somerset Levels, has many rewards for visitors. Beside the clearly laid out foundations of the wealthy medieval Benedictine abbey (and its Anglo-Saxon predecessor) stands a complete early...

'Everywhere peace, everywhere serenity, and a marvellous freedom from the tumult of the world.' Written over eight centuries ago by the monastery's third abbot, St Aelred, these words still describe Rievaulx today. Set in a beautiful and tranquil valley,...

Beautifully set in a valley landscaped by 'Capability' Brown in the 18th century, the most striking feature of this Cistercian abbey is the eastern end of its church, built in the new Gothic style c. 1170. It has one of the most complete ground plans of...

This great abbey, marking the rebirth of Christianity in southern England, was founded shortly after AD 597 by St Augustine. Originally created as a burial place for the Anglo-Saxon kings of Kent, it is part of the Canterbury World Heritage Site, along...

With a history spanning over a millennium, St Peter's church is among the most important historic buildings in England. It combines a remarkably complete Anglo-Saxon tower and rare baptistry, dating mainly from c. 970, with a tall and impressive medieval...

The enormous and ornate fortified gatehouse of Thornton Abbey is the largest and among the finest of all English monastic gatehouses. An early example of brick building in England, it proclaimed the wool tradebased prosperity of one of the...

Picturesque ruins of a large priory of Cluniac monks, whose love of decoration is reflected in the glorious carving of its 12th-century chapter house and rare 'lavabo' - a tiered washing fountain in a topiary bedecked cloister garden. Parts of the great...