Name: Rievaulx Abbey
Address: Rievaulx, Nr Helmsley, North Yorkshire, YO62 5LB
Telephone: 01439 798228

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Address

Rievaulx, Nr Helmsley, North Yorkshire, YO62 5LB

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Things to See and Do

Walter Espec, lord of Helmsley, builds temporary timber structures for the first monks sent from Clairvaux in France.

William, the first abbot, begins work on the first stone buildings.

Aelred becomes the third abbot. He rebuilds and expands William's monastery for the growing community, adding a monumental new church.

Abbot Silvanus rebuilds the south range of the cloister and remodels Abbot William's west range.

The east end of the church is remodelled in spectacular style, probably to house Aelred's shrine.

Rievaulx's buildings are again remodelled to suit changing patterns of religious life.

Rievaulx Abbey is suppressed under Henry VIII and sold to Thomas Manners, 1st Earl of Rutland. The abbey is dismantled.

Rutland develops a substantial ironworks at Rievaulx that continues for about a century.

Under the Duncombe family, Rievaulx becomes a landscape monument that appeals to artists and writers.

The Yorkshire Archaeological and Topographical Association visits with expert guides to look into the history of the site.

The Office of Works take the ruins at Rievaulx into guardianship.

With the presbytery in danger of collapse, immediate repairs begin, despite wartime shortages of labour and materials.

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