Gisborough Priory
Encyclopedia
Gisborough Priory is a ruined former Augustinian priory
in the town of Guisborough
, now in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland
and the ceremonial county
of North Yorkshire
, England. It was founded in 1119 as the Priory of St. Mary by Robert de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale
, an ancestor of the Scottish king Robert the Bruce
. It became one of the richest monastic foundations in England with the aid of grants from the Crown and bequests from de Brus and other local nobles and gentry, as well as many local people of more modest means. Much of the Romanesque
Norman
priory was destroyed in a catastrophic fire in 1289. It was rebuilt in the Gothic
style on a much grander scale over the following century. Its remains are regarded as being among the finest surviving examples of early Gothic architecture.
The priory prospered until the last phase of the Dissolution of the Monasteries
in 1540, when it was abolished along with all of England's other monastic communities. The priory buildings were soon demolished and the stone was re-used in many other buildings in Guisborough. The east end was left standing with its great window forming a distinctive arch shape, a well-known landmark which is often used as a symbol of Guisborough. It became part of the estate of the local Chaloner family, who acquired it in 1550. The east window was preserved by them as part of a Romantic
vista adjoining their seat, Gisborough Hall
, from which the priory takes its idiosyncratically spelled modern name. It is still owned by the Chaloners but is now in the care of English Heritage
as a listed building.
as being present in 1086. Following the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror gave lands in the area to the Count of Mortain. He in turn passed them on to his friend Robert de Brus, Lord of Skelton
, who was one of the largest landowners in the North and possessed over 40000 acres (161.9 km²) in Yorkshire
alone. The region was, however, in a severely economically depressed state caused by the devastating Harrying of the North
carried out by William following the Conquest. Consequently there were few monasteries north of the River Humber and ample opportunities existed for new agricultural and religious developments. The Augustinian monastic order first came to England at the start of the 12th century and soon established a number of houses around England, including major ones at Bridlington
, Nostell
and Kirkham
. They were not monks as such but lived as communities of canons
living under the rule of St. Augustine
, wearing dark robes that earned them the nickname of the "Black Canons".
Robert de Brus "founded a certain Monastery of a religious order in Gysburne [sic], to the honour of God, and the holy Virgin Mary", as the founding charter of the Priory puts it. He gave "to the same Church and the service of God in it, all Gysburne, with all things pertaining thereto it". This included lands amounting to twenty carucate
s and two oxgang
s (roughly equivalent to about 2500 acres (10.1 km²)), churches, mills and other possessions of de Brus, along with grants from others. The charter started that this endowment was to provide "material for ever for their buildings, and all other necessities of their house." The foundation was authorised by Pope Calixtus II and Thurstan
, Archbishop of York
. De Brus may well have been emulating his peers in Yorkshire, who had already founded their own monastic institutions as a focus for their religious obligations. The actual date of the foundation is unclear. The 14th-century canon and historian Walter of Guisborough gives the date as 1129, but a charter of confirmation from Pope Calixtus dates to the period of his pontificate between 1119–24. It appears that the priory had two foundation charters, a shorter one dating possibly to 1119 and a longer and more detailed one dating to 1129, and it may have been that the latter one was later taken to be the definitive document.
The rights and privileges of the prior and canons grew further over the following centuries with royal grants. Henry III
granted them the lucrative rights of sac and soc, thol and theam and infangtheof. He also established a Monday market at Guisborough and the right to hold a three-day fair every year to mark the Assumption
(15 August). The proceeds and fees from these events were used to support the priory. The prior and canons were also granted free warren
in the lands around Guisborough and several nearby villages. This right was extended to more demesne
s by Edward III
, who permitted them to convert an 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) lot of land into a deer park (now Park Wood, just outside Guisborough). Henry IV
gave them the twice-yearly right of frankpledge
and the additional right of waif and stray and the return of briefs and writs. These grants gave the priory a steady income from rents, fines, licences and other fees. As well as enjoying income from these sources, the canons of Guisborough owned 4,000 sheep, mostly in Eskdale
, in the 13th and 14th century.
The priory became widely known for its canons' strict observance of the Augustinian rule and religious precepts. Their reputation for ducentes canonicam vitam ("living a canonical life") attracted the attention of Saint Malachy
of Ireland who, as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
later recorded, had a close and long-standing involvement with Gisborough Priory. The canons were closely associated with the Cistercians who, like the Augustianians, had a reformist outlook. One Guisborough canon, William of Newminster, moved to the Cistercian Fountains Abbey
to become its abbot. They were widely supported by the local people and records survive of numerous small grants, particularly related to the use of the almonry
(the place or chamber where alms
were distributed to the poor) and to the support of building work. The canons leased, bought and sold land as well as loaning money using property grants as collateral to benefit the priory's building fund. As the priory became more wealthy, however, the discipline of its canons began to slip and the Archbishops of York found it necessary to take corrective action by the late 13th century. A number of canons were sent to Kirkham and Bridlington for correction and Gisborough in turn took in disobedient canons from other places.
On 16 May 1289, the priory suffered a catastrophic fire. According to an account by Walter of Guisborough, a plumber soldering holes in the lead roof forgot to put out his fire, causing the roof timbers to catch fire and the leads to melt down into the church below. Much of the building was destroyed and many of its effects, including costly books, chalices and vestments, were lost in the blaze. Most of the nave
and all of the chancel
had to be rebuilt with the continued support of the de Brus family, whose coat of arms was prominently displayed on the priory buildings. The canons immediately sought to raise funds for rebuilding. They petitioned the king to grant them the advowsons of the parish churches of Barnham
, Easington
and Heslarton, and in 1309 and 1311 the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Durham rewarded the priory's donors with indulgence
s granting remission of temporal punishment for sins.
The rebuilding probably took around a century to complete. Work was slowed by the high costs of the project and the civil unrest of the early 14th century, when Scottish raiders repeatedly plundered the north of England. The priory's lands were reduced in value by the raids, diminishing its income. Its wealth was tapped by Archbishop Melton of York
to make good his own losses in 1319, and in 1320 it had to take in refugees from other monastic houses that had been forced to disperse to escape the raiders. Probably as a consequence of the troubles, the priory petitioned the king in 1328 to be exempted from the "clerical tenth" (a 10% tax on clerical property) and in 1344 it was granted permission to fortify its buildings. By 1380 its staff had diminished to twenty-six canons and two lay brothers.
The Yorkshire line of the de Brus family died out with the death of the childless Peter IV de Brus in 1272. However, the priory continued to be patronised by the local nobility. The Fauconberg
and Thweng families, who had married Peter's sisters Agnes and Lucia, took over the patronage and continued it for several centuries afterwards. Many prominent local nobles were buried there, as was the Scottish Robert V de Brus, the grandfather of King Robert the Bruce. At least nine successive patrons and their families were buried in the priory between 1295 and 1411, indicating that they saw it as the grandest (and therefore most esteemed) burial site available to them. It received substantial financial support from its patrons; for instance, in 1381 William, Lord Latimer
provided for the completion of the north nave of the priory and donated the sum of £333 6s 8d (roughly equivalent to £1.6 million today) for the construction of a new belfry
. He also left to them his cattle from his manor at Ugthorpe
and bequeathed to them a range of religious items, as well as making arrangements for his body to be interred at the priory on his death.
was excommunicated for divorcing Catherine of Aragon
. In response he had the Act of Supremacy passed in 1534 which established his supremacy over the church in England and declared Henry to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England. The church's estate in England thus became part of the king's estate and in 1535 Henry ordered the Valor Ecclesiasticus
, a comprehensive survey of the church's property. It found that Gisborough Priory had an annual net value of £628.6s.8d., which made it the fourth wealthiest monastic house in Yorkshire. In 1536 all monasteries with less than £200 of annual income were suppressed but the priory's wealth meant that it was exempt from this first wave of suppression.
The Valor was followed by a second survey, carried out by the King's commissioners Thomas Legh and Richard Leyton. It provided for the final suppression of the monasteries on charges of a lack of quality of religious life. Prior James Cockerell of Guisborough was forced to resign and was replaced with Robert Pursglove, who was seen as more loyal to the new government. The priory's dissolution was not welcomed by the locals, who derived considerable economic benefit from its presence – in 1536, around 500 families in Guisborough depended on the priory for their livelihoods. The strength of local feeling was recorded in a letter from Lord Conyers and Sir John Bulmer to Thomas Cromwell: "On Sunday, 11th July [1539], at Gysburn in Yorkshire, when the parish priest was declaring the articles [of dissolution] directed by the King to the Archbishop of York, one John Atkeynson alias Brotton came violently and took book forth of the priest's hands, and pulled it in pieces." Popular discontent with the dissolution of the monasteries sparked a major uprising, the Pilgrimage of Grace
, in which the former Prior Cockerell was implicated; when the revolt failed he was hanged at Tyburn
along with the Prior of Bridlington, the Abbot of Jervaulx and the former Abbot of Fountains.
The Priory was formally dissolved on 8 April 1540 and was surrendered to the King's men on 22 December 1540, making it one of the last monastic houses in England to be suppressed. A proposal to found a secular college at the former priory came to nothing and the priory buildings – with the exception of the gatehouses and the great east window – were soon demolished. On 21 November 1541 Thomas Legh was granted a lease "of the buildings with the site and precincts of the Priory to be then demolished and carried away." The demolition was carried out by collapsing the central tower of the priory into the body of the church, crushing it in its fall and reducing the building to a pile of rubble.
The site and lands were subsequently re-let in 1550 to Sir Thomas Chaloner
, who later purchased the property outright. The Chaloners first occupied the former priors' quarters in the west range before moving in the late 17th century to their new mansion, Old Gisborough Hall, on Bow Street. The remains of the priory were cleared away and the fallen stonework was either looted or sold. The grounds were redeveloped as formal gardens within the extensive grounds of Old Gisborough Hall. John Walker Ord, a local historian in the mid-19th century, described how the priory's stonework could be seen in many buildings around Guisborough. He deplored the profane uses to which it had been put:
Some fragments of Gisborough Priory travelled considerably further afield. At Hardwick Hall
near Sedgefield
, a mock ruin was built incorporating sculptured stones brought from the site of the priory. The wealth of the priory became the stuff of local legends, one of which claims that an underground passage leads from the priory to a cave under the hills in which a raven stands guard over a chest of gold.
The priory's lands around Guisborough became the source of considerable wealth for the Chaloners. Around 1595, Sir Thomas Chaloner's son
, also called Thomas, established England's first alum
works at Belman Bank just south of Guisborough. Alum was a very important product at that time with a variety of industrial uses. It was especially important to the English cloth industry as a mordant
(a substance used to fix dyes on cloth). The supply of alum was controlled by a cartel controlled by the Papal States
and Spain. Both were in conflict with England but were able to exercise a virtual monopoly on the provision of alum to Christian Europe, as the importation of cheaper Turkish alum had been banned under Pope Paul II
in the mid-15th century. A widely reported story states that Chaloner visited the Pope's alum
works at Tolfa
near Rome, While there, Chaloner noticed that the soil and vegetation in the area of the alum works resembled those of his estate at Guisborough. On his return he established his own alum works at Belman Bank with the aid of workmen smuggled from Rome, earning him a papal excommunication. John Walker Ord casts doubt on this story, noting that an account published a few decades afterwards states that the workmen actually came from France and does not mention Chaloner's travels in Italy.
The only substantial part of Gisborough Priory to survive in anything like its original form was the eastern gable of the presbytery with its great east window. This survival owed much to the rise of Romanticism
in the 18th century. The portrayal of ruined buildings in idealised landscapes by J. M. W. Turner
and his contemporaries inspired a fashion for the local nobility and gentry to produce their own paintings of local monasteries. This provided an incentive for landowners to preserve them as romantic ruins, rather than using them as quarries. Gisborough Priory's east window was one of the first examples of a monastic ruin to be retained for its visual qualities. It was incorporated into the grounds of Old Gisborough Hall to serve as a romantic ruin and the sill of the great window was removed to ensure an uninterrupted view.
A manicured lawn, known as the East Lawn, was laid out in front of the east window and was used for grand bazaars and fêtes until as late as the early 20th century. A ha-ha was installed behind the east window to keep cattle out of the priory grounds. To the south of the priory buildings a terrace, known as the Long Terrace, ran almost the full length of the priory grounds. It afforded access to the priory ruins via a flight of steps flanked by two carved demi-sea wolves, reflecting the coat of arms of the Chaloners. They were mistakenly thought to be dragons by local people and the steps were referred to as the Dragon Steps.
Old Gisborough Hall was pulled down around 1825 and the Chaloners built a new mansion house, the current Gisborough Hall
, about half a mile to the east in 1857. In 1932, Thomas Chaloner, 2nd Baron Gisborough
transferred control of the priory to the Office of Works
. It later became the responsibility of the Ministry of Works, then the Department of the Environment
and finally English Heritage
from 1984. It remains the property of Lord Gisborough; English Heritage is responsible for maintaining the ruins, while the day-to-day running is in the charge of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.
According to local folklore, the priory is haunted by the ghost of a monk in a black habit who returns to the ruins annually to check that the priory's buried treasure has not been disturbed. He is said to arrive at midnight on the year's first new moon to lower a ghostly drawbridge spanning a vanished moat. In 1966 and 1967 a hundred people turned out to watch for the black monk and allegedly managed to spot a cowled figure, but in 1968 the few spectators who turned up saw nothing.
that still stands to its full height. The eastern gable wall is dominated by a great east window and is regarded as one of the finest examples of late 13th century church architecture. Its design is so close to that of the eastern arm of Ripon Cathedral
, which was built around the same time, that it is thought to have been directly modelled on Ripon's design. The window's tracery
has disappeared, as has its sill, but it can be deduced from the stubs and surviving fragments that it had seven major lights (the glazed openings in the window). At its centre was a great circle of tracery filled with trefoil
ed lights. The main gable of the east wall is flanked with a pair of massive buttresses, each capped with gables and octagonal pinnacles. A similar pair of pinnacles top the main gable, flanking a window of unusual design; a bracket projects from the lower lobe to support a large statue (no longer present), possibly of the Virgin Mary, to whom the priory was dedicated.
Little remains above ground of the rest of the priory, but much can be deduced from the surviving stonework. In its final form the priory had a nave of eight bays and a quire and presbytery of nine bays, with a total length of 107 metres (351 ft). The survival of the east wall allows us to deduce that the ridge line of the roof stood 29.6 metres (97.1 ft) above ground. The presbytery's arcades were supported by eight clustered shafts, the bases of which are still visible, with capitals
carved with naturalistic foliage. The clerestory
and triforium
were combined into a single arch with the main arcade below. The presbytery's high vault was executed in stone with bosses decorated in red and white paint and gold leaf, traces of which were still visible when several of the bosses were found in the 19th century. The eastern bay of the presbytery was divided into a number of chapels and the remnants of parclose screens are still visible on the main aisle's north and south respond
s. The main altar would have stood a short distance to the west, behind a tall screen.
At the angle of each aisle, a spiral staircase – still visible on each side of the surviving east wall – gave access to a passages inside the walls and to secondary stairs within the angles of the main gable. This enabled access to all parts of the building for maintenance and cleaning without requiring scaffolding. Nothing now remains of the north or south transepts, which projected beyond the present boundary wall into what is now the graveyard of the modern Saint Nicholas' Church next door.
A number of burials (presumably of high-ranking benefactors and clergy) were made within the priory building and several stone coffins were recovered by 19th century excavators. They are visible today against the east wall, but unfortunately their original location was not recorded and is not known. A pair of centrally placed grave slabs are still visible in a central location below the east window. In addition to the graves, the priory once also housed the Brus cenotaph, a memorial erected in 1521. It was removed from the priory in 1540 and was dismantled. It was reassembled in the 19th century and is now displayed in Saint Nicholas' Church.
measuring 36.5 metres (119.8 ft) square to the south side of the priory church, surrounded by domestic buildings or ranges. They replaced an earlier cloister and ranges that had been destroyed in the fire of 1289 but were quickly rebuilt to a new, larger, design. Processional doors along the cloister's north wall gave access to the nave
of the priory church. In 1854, surviving arches and columns from the cloister were taken to London to be displayed in the Crystal Palace
where they were used as the basis for a reconstruction of a medieval cloister in the "English National Art Court" section of the exhibition.
Little now remains of the cloister but significant fragments of the west range – known as the cellarer's range – are still extant. It would have been entered from the west by an outer parlour, projecting outwards from the north end of the range, where members of the priory community could receive visitors. The Prior himself would have lived on the missing upper floor of the range, which comprised a hall, chamber and chapel dedicated to Saint Hilda. The prior's rooms were most probably located above the outer parlour, as was the pattern at other monasteries, which would have given him access to both the cloister and the outside world.
The largest surviving fragment of the range comprises a cellarium or storehouse where the priory's supplies would have been kept. This consists of a vaulted undercroft of nine bays constructed from ashlar
with a floor level set below that of the cloister. It is relatively well-preserved and is believed to have originally been divided by timber partitions. These were later replaced in stone.
Most of the refectory
(dining hall) range to the south of the cloister and the dorter range to the east, which contained the chapter house
and dormitory, have yet to be excavated. Only the western end of the refectory range has been excavated; it presents a vaulted undercroft, three bays of which survive, above which the refectory itself would have been located on the first floor. A service passage also survives leading between the site of the kitchen and the refectory. The western part of the undercroft was used as a buttery
during the late Middle Ages but would have had severely restricted headroom due to its raised flood.
The structure consists of a single large round-headed archway on the outer side with two smaller arches of different sizes a few metres to the south, both deeply rebated to accommodate doors. The larger arch was for wagons while pedestrians entered through the smaller arch. Little now remains of the gatehall or the porter's lodge; the only remnants now visible are the stub of the lodge's north wall and a latrine
shaft.
The canons also constructed an octagonal dovecote
a short distance to the west of the west range to provide them The dovecote is still extant, though it cannot currently be visited and is not part of the priory grounds. Built in the 14th century, the dovecote was modified in the mid-18th century with the addition of a pyramidal roof tiled with Welsh slate
and capped with an open-sided timber cupola. The original nesting boxes have been removed and the dovecote is now used as a garden store.
The original Norman priory, completed around 1180, was relatively short and narrow. It was constructed in the Romanesque
style with twin aisles on either side of the nave and a single tower at the west end, aligned with the main axis of the church. It could be entered from both the north, via an external door, and from the south via the cloister. The existence of the northward door suggests that it was used by a secular congregation, possibly the local nobility and patrons of the priory. A number of graves associated with the first priory have been found in the south aisle's floor and against the north wall.
It was rebuilt around 1200 on a much larger scale with the Romanesque church being demolished down to its first course of ashlar
. The construction of the new church continued through much of the 13th century. The enlarged priory had twin towers at the west end flanking a large double doorway above which was a central rose window
; water was provided via a piped water supply using lead pipes leading from the cloister, under the church and out to buildings or standpipes to the north or west of the priory. The main body of the church comprised a nave with two aisles, transepts and a choir. The aisles were laid with geometric coloured tiles adjoining the sandstone columns of the nave. The north aisle was divided into alcoves or private chapels where a number of people – probably local nobles and gentry – were buried. An unusual feature of the church was a well, sunk into the nave, possibly built in an effort to safeguard the priory's water supplies.
The effects of the fire that destroyed the priory in 1289 can still be seen in the scorched paving between the surviving pillars of the church. It was originally thought that the church had been completely rebuilt, but excavations in the 1980s have shown that in fact a substantial amount of the less damaged west end was largely reused. This resulted in a distinct inconsistency between the two ends of the priory, which were constructed in different architectural styles. The rebuilding was a major task that took several generations and was probably not completed until the end of the fourteenth century. It is unclear exactly how much of the second priory survived the fire. Where the priory was rebuilt, its builders evidently sought to reuse as much as possible; the core of the surviving eastern gable wall is full of fragments from the destroyed second priory.
In the late 19th century, Margaret Chaloner, the wife of the first Lord Gisborough
, began laying out a new series of formal gardens. These were of a typical late Victorian and Edwardian design with elaborate bedding schemes and gravelled paths. The gardens included a rose garden and a sunken Italian garden that had an ornamental pool at its centre. They were open to the public for a small fee and could be entered through a gateway on Bow Street.
Further east, off the Whitby Road, is the Monks' Pond, which – as the name suggests – was used by the canons as a fish pond. It presents a dramatic vista in which the priory arch is reflected and has often been photographed and painted. In 1908, the pond was the scene of an elaborate water tableau organised by Lady Gisborough to raise funds for the restoration of St Nicholas' Church. It was long home to a number of exceptionally large fish, but a pollution incident in 2000 apparently caused by a sewage leak led to the death of more than 5,000 fish in the pond.
hospital of St. Leonard's at Hutton Lowcross, just to the west of Guisborough. The hospital was probably founded in the 12th century and became a dependency of the priory in 1275. It was last documented in 1339. Its fate is unclear but it seems likely that it survived until the Dissolution in 1540.
The priory may also have owned a cell at Scarth Wood at Whorlton
. A grant issued by Stephen de Meynell during the reign of Henry I records the donation of the hamlet of Scarth to enable the priory to establish a cell there, for habitation by a single monk or canon. It is unclear whether the cell was ever actually built, as Scarth is not mentioned in the priory's deeds or in Henry VIII's commissioners' valuation of the priory's property. However, some fragmentary building remains at Scarth are recorded as existing at the site in the mid-18th century. They were cleared away by the start of the 19th century so there is now no trace left of whatever might once have stood there or what it might have been used for.
In 1985–86 Cleveland County Archaeology Section carried out a major excavation of the west end of the nave to consolidate an area of subsidence. The subsidence turned out to be caused by a previously unrecorded burial vault. The excavators uncovered a considerable amount of new information about the priory's history. They found more evidence of the fire which had destroyed the building in 1289 including scorched masonry, a shattered bell and broken grave-slabs. The remains of 47 individuals – 21 men, 17 women, 6 children and three others of undetermined gender – were discovered, some of which had been buried with grave goods including a gold finger ring, jet
crosses and two chalice
s and patten
s buried with two priests. The skeletons were later cremated and the ashes were scattered in the centre of the Monks' Walk in the Priory Gardens. A geophysical survey
was also carried out to the west and east of the west range, indicating the existence of the buried remains of other monastic buildings which have yet to be excavated.
Priory
A priory is a house of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or religious sisters , or monasteries of monks or nuns .The Benedictines and their offshoots , the Premonstratensians, and the...
in the town of Guisborough
Guisborough
Guisborough is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England....
, now in the borough of Redcar and Cleveland
Redcar and Cleveland
The borough of Redcar & Cleveland is a unitary authority in the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England consisting of Redcar, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Guisborough, and small towns such as Brotton, Eston, Skelton and Loftus. It had a resident population of 139,132 in 2001, and is part of the Tees...
and the ceremonial county
Ceremonial counties of England
The ceremonial counties are areas of England to which are appointed a Lord Lieutenant, and are defined by the government as counties and areas for the purposes of the Lieutenancies Act 1997 with reference to the metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties of England and Lieutenancies Act 1997...
of North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire
North Yorkshire is a non-metropolitan or shire county located in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England, and a ceremonial county primarily in that region but partly in North East England. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972 it covers an area of , making it the largest...
, England. It was founded in 1119 as the Priory of St. Mary by Robert de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale
Robert de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale
Robert I de Brus, 1st Lord of Annandale was an early 12th century Norman baron and knight, the first of the Bruce dynasty of Scotland and England...
, an ancestor of the Scottish king Robert the Bruce
Robert I of Scotland
Robert I , popularly known as Robert the Bruce , was King of Scots from March 25, 1306, until his death in 1329.His paternal ancestors were of Scoto-Norman heritage , and...
. It became one of the richest monastic foundations in England with the aid of grants from the Crown and bequests from de Brus and other local nobles and gentry, as well as many local people of more modest means. Much of the Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
priory was destroyed in a catastrophic fire in 1289. It was rebuilt in the Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
style on a much grander scale over the following century. Its remains are regarded as being among the finest surviving examples of early Gothic architecture.
The priory prospered until the last phase of the Dissolution of the Monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
in 1540, when it was abolished along with all of England's other monastic communities. The priory buildings were soon demolished and the stone was re-used in many other buildings in Guisborough. The east end was left standing with its great window forming a distinctive arch shape, a well-known landmark which is often used as a symbol of Guisborough. It became part of the estate of the local Chaloner family, who acquired it in 1550. The east window was preserved by them as part of a Romantic
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
vista adjoining their seat, Gisborough Hall
Gisborough Hall
Gisborough Hall is a 19th century mansion house, now a hotel, at Guisborough, Redcar and Cleveland, England. It is a Grade II listed building....
, from which the priory takes its idiosyncratically spelled modern name. It is still owned by the Chaloners but is now in the care of English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
as a listed building.
Establishment
The town of Guisborough was already well-established at the time of the Priory's founding. A priest, a church and a mill were recorded in the Domesday BookDomesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...
as being present in 1086. Following the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror gave lands in the area to the Count of Mortain. He in turn passed them on to his friend Robert de Brus, Lord of Skelton
Skelton-in-Cleveland
Skelton-in-Cleveland is a small town in the civil parish of Skelton and Brotton in the unitary authority of Redcar and Cleveland and the ceremonial county of North Yorkshire in the North East of England. It is situated at the foot of the Cleveland Hills and about east of Middlesbrough. Skelton is...
, who was one of the largest landowners in the North and possessed over 40000 acres (161.9 km²) in Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
alone. The region was, however, in a severely economically depressed state caused by the devastating Harrying of the North
Harrying of the North
The Harrying of the North was a series of campaigns waged by William the Conqueror in the winter of 1069–1070 to subjugate Northern England, and is part of the Norman conquest of England...
carried out by William following the Conquest. Consequently there were few monasteries north of the River Humber and ample opportunities existed for new agricultural and religious developments. The Augustinian monastic order first came to England at the start of the 12th century and soon established a number of houses around England, including major ones at Bridlington
Bridlington
Bridlington is a seaside resort, minor sea fishing port and civil parish on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It has a static population of over 33,000, which rises considerably during the tourist season...
, Nostell
Nostell
Nostell is a village in the City of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, near Hemsworth. It is in the civil parish of Huntwick with Foulby and Nostell, which has a population of 90, and is the site of an Augustinian priory which received its charter in 1121.Nostell Priory is an 18th century...
and Kirkham
Kirkham, North Yorkshire
Kirkham is a village in North Yorkshire, England, close to Malton, situated in the Howardian Hills alongside the River Derwent, and is notable for the nearby ruins of Kirkham Priory, an Augustinian establishment....
. They were not monks as such but lived as communities of canons
Canon (priest)
A canon is a priest or minister who is a member of certain bodies of the Christian clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule ....
living under the rule of St. Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
, wearing dark robes that earned them the nickname of the "Black Canons".
Robert de Brus "founded a certain Monastery of a religious order in Gysburne [sic], to the honour of God, and the holy Virgin Mary", as the founding charter of the Priory puts it. He gave "to the same Church and the service of God in it, all Gysburne, with all things pertaining thereto it". This included lands amounting to twenty carucate
Carucate
The carucate or ploughland was a unit of assessment for tax used in most Danelaw counties of England, and is found for example in Domesday Book. The carucate was based on the area a plough team of eight oxen could till in a single annual season...
s and two oxgang
Oxgang
An oxgang or bovate is an old land measurement formerly used in Scotland and England. It averaged around 20 English acres, but was based on land fertility and cultivation, and so could be as low as 15.Skene in Celtic Scotland says:...
s (roughly equivalent to about 2500 acres (10.1 km²)), churches, mills and other possessions of de Brus, along with grants from others. The charter started that this endowment was to provide "material for ever for their buildings, and all other necessities of their house." The foundation was authorised by Pope Calixtus II and Thurstan
Thurstan
Thurstan or Turstin of Bayeux was a medieval Archbishop of York, the son of a priest. He served kings William II and Henry I of England before his election to the see of York in 1114. Once elected, his consecration was delayed for five years while he fought attempts by the Archbishop of Canterbury...
, Archbishop of York
Archbishop of York
The Archbishop of York is a high-ranking cleric in the Church of England, second only to the Archbishop of Canterbury. He is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and metropolitan of the Province of York, which covers the northern portion of England as well as the Isle of Man...
. De Brus may well have been emulating his peers in Yorkshire, who had already founded their own monastic institutions as a focus for their religious obligations. The actual date of the foundation is unclear. The 14th-century canon and historian Walter of Guisborough gives the date as 1129, but a charter of confirmation from Pope Calixtus dates to the period of his pontificate between 1119–24. It appears that the priory had two foundation charters, a shorter one dating possibly to 1119 and a longer and more detailed one dating to 1129, and it may have been that the latter one was later taken to be the definitive document.
The rights and privileges of the prior and canons grew further over the following centuries with royal grants. Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
granted them the lucrative rights of sac and soc, thol and theam and infangtheof. He also established a Monday market at Guisborough and the right to hold a three-day fair every year to mark the Assumption
Assumption of Mary
According to the belief of Christians of the Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, and parts of the Anglican Communion and Continuing Anglicanism, the Assumption of Mary was the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her life...
(15 August). The proceeds and fees from these events were used to support the priory. The prior and canons were also granted free warren
Warren (free)
Free warren—often simply warren—refers to a type of franchise or privilege conveyed by a sovereign in mediaeval England to a subject, promising to hold them harmless for killing game of certain species within a stipulated area, usually a wood or small forest...
in the lands around Guisborough and several nearby villages. This right was extended to more demesne
Demesne
In the feudal system the demesne was all the land, not necessarily all contiguous to the manor house, which was retained by a lord of the manor for his own use and support, under his own management, as distinguished from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants...
s by Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
, who permitted them to convert an 80 acres (323,748.8 m²) lot of land into a deer park (now Park Wood, just outside Guisborough). Henry IV
Henry IV of England
Henry IV was King of England and Lord of Ireland . He was the ninth King of England of the House of Plantagenet and also asserted his grandfather's claim to the title King of France. He was born at Bolingbroke Castle in Lincolnshire, hence his other name, Henry Bolingbroke...
gave them the twice-yearly right of frankpledge
Frankpledge
Frankpledge, earlier known as frith-borh , was a system of joint suretyship common in England throughout the Early Middle Ages. The essential characteristic was the compulsory sharing of responsibility among persons connected through kinship, or some other kind of tie such as an oath of fealty to a...
and the additional right of waif and stray and the return of briefs and writs. These grants gave the priory a steady income from rents, fines, licences and other fees. As well as enjoying income from these sources, the canons of Guisborough owned 4,000 sheep, mostly in Eskdale
Eskdale, North Yorkshire
Eskdale is a valley running west to east from Westerdale on the North Yorkshire Moors to Whitby on the east coast of England.Formed during the last major ice age, it has a classic U-shaped valley formation caused by the action of glaciers carving away the rock.Eskdale carries the River Esk from the...
, in the 13th and 14th century.
The priory became widely known for its canons' strict observance of the Augustinian rule and religious precepts. Their reputation for ducentes canonicam vitam ("living a canonical life") attracted the attention of Saint Malachy
Saint Malachy
Saint Malachy was the Archbishop of Armagh, to whom were attributed several miracles and a vision of the identity of the last 112 Popes...
of Ireland who, as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux
Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val...
later recorded, had a close and long-standing involvement with Gisborough Priory. The canons were closely associated with the Cistercians who, like the Augustianians, had a reformist outlook. One Guisborough canon, William of Newminster, moved to the Cistercian Fountains Abbey
Fountains Abbey
Fountains Abbey is near to Aldfield, approximately two miles southwest of Ripon in North Yorkshire, England. It is a ruined Cistercian monastery, founded in 1132. Fountains Abbey is one of the largest and best preserved Cistercian houses in England. It is a Grade I listed building and owned by the...
to become its abbot. They were widely supported by the local people and records survive of numerous small grants, particularly related to the use of the almonry
Almonry
An almonry is the place or chamber where alms were distributed to the poor in churches or other ecclesiastical buildings....
(the place or chamber where alms
Alms
Alms or almsgiving is a religious rite which, in general, involves giving materially to another as an act of religious virtue.It exists in a number of religions. In Philippine Regions, alms are given as charity to benefit the poor. In Buddhism, alms are given by lay people to monks and nuns to...
were distributed to the poor) and to the support of building work. The canons leased, bought and sold land as well as loaning money using property grants as collateral to benefit the priory's building fund. As the priory became more wealthy, however, the discipline of its canons began to slip and the Archbishops of York found it necessary to take corrective action by the late 13th century. A number of canons were sent to Kirkham and Bridlington for correction and Gisborough in turn took in disobedient canons from other places.
On 16 May 1289, the priory suffered a catastrophic fire. According to an account by Walter of Guisborough, a plumber soldering holes in the lead roof forgot to put out his fire, causing the roof timbers to catch fire and the leads to melt down into the church below. Much of the building was destroyed and many of its effects, including costly books, chalices and vestments, were lost in the blaze. Most of the nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
and all of the chancel
Chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar in the sanctuary at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building...
had to be rebuilt with the continued support of the de Brus family, whose coat of arms was prominently displayed on the priory buildings. The canons immediately sought to raise funds for rebuilding. They petitioned the king to grant them the advowsons of the parish churches of Barnham
Barnham
Barnham, as a person, may refer to:*Alice Barnham , the wife Francis Bacon*Benedict Barnham , an English merchantBarnham, as a location, may refer to:*Barnham, Suffolk, a village and civil parish in Suffolk, England...
, Easington
Easington, East Riding of Yorkshire
Easington is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England in the area known as Holderness. It is situated between the Humber estuary and the North Sea at the south-eastern corner of the county at the end of the B1445 road from Patrington.The civil parish is formed by...
and Heslarton, and in 1309 and 1311 the Archbishop of York and the Bishop of Durham rewarded the priory's donors with indulgence
Indulgence
In Catholic theology, an indulgence is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven. The indulgence is granted by the Catholic Church after the sinner has confessed and received absolution...
s granting remission of temporal punishment for sins.
The rebuilding probably took around a century to complete. Work was slowed by the high costs of the project and the civil unrest of the early 14th century, when Scottish raiders repeatedly plundered the north of England. The priory's lands were reduced in value by the raids, diminishing its income. Its wealth was tapped by Archbishop Melton of York
William Melton
-Life:Melton was the son of Henry of Melton, and the brother of Henry de Melton. He was born in Melton in the parish of Welton, about nine miles from Kingston upon Hull. He was a contemporary of John Hotham, Chancellor of England and Bishop of Ely...
to make good his own losses in 1319, and in 1320 it had to take in refugees from other monastic houses that had been forced to disperse to escape the raiders. Probably as a consequence of the troubles, the priory petitioned the king in 1328 to be exempted from the "clerical tenth" (a 10% tax on clerical property) and in 1344 it was granted permission to fortify its buildings. By 1380 its staff had diminished to twenty-six canons and two lay brothers.
The Yorkshire line of the de Brus family died out with the death of the childless Peter IV de Brus in 1272. However, the priory continued to be patronised by the local nobility. The Fauconberg
Baron Fauconberg
The title Baron Fauconberg has been created twice in the Peerage of England. It was first created in 1295 when Walter de Fauconberg was summoned to parliament. Between 1463 and 1903 the title was abeyant, until the abeyance was terminated in favour of Marcia Amelia Mary Lane-Fox, who also gained...
and Thweng families, who had married Peter's sisters Agnes and Lucia, took over the patronage and continued it for several centuries afterwards. Many prominent local nobles were buried there, as was the Scottish Robert V de Brus, the grandfather of King Robert the Bruce. At least nine successive patrons and their families were buried in the priory between 1295 and 1411, indicating that they saw it as the grandest (and therefore most esteemed) burial site available to them. It received substantial financial support from its patrons; for instance, in 1381 William, Lord Latimer
William Latimer, 4th Baron Latimer
William Latimer, 4th Baron Latimer, KG was an English noble, soldier and diplomat. After serving in France and for the household of Edward III, he was impeached during the Good Parliament of 1376, the earliest recorded impeachment in the Parliament of England.-Early life and service in France:Born...
provided for the completion of the north nave of the priory and donated the sum of £333 6s 8d (roughly equivalent to £1.6 million today) for the construction of a new belfry
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
. He also left to them his cattle from his manor at Ugthorpe
Ugthorpe
Ugthorpe is a village and civil parish in the Scarborough borough, situated near Whitby, North Yorkshire, England. According to the 2001 UK census, Ugthorpe parish had a population of 201.-History:...
and bequeathed to them a range of religious items, as well as making arrangements for his body to be interred at the priory on his death.
Dissolution and after
In 1533 Henry VIII of EnglandHenry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
was excommunicated for divorcing Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon
Catherine of Aragon , also known as Katherine or Katharine, was Queen consort of England as the first wife of King Henry VIII of England and Princess of Wales as the wife to Arthur, Prince of Wales...
. In response he had the Act of Supremacy passed in 1534 which established his supremacy over the church in England and declared Henry to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England. The church's estate in England thus became part of the king's estate and in 1535 Henry ordered the Valor Ecclesiasticus
Valor Ecclesiasticus
The Valor Ecclesiasticus was a survey of the finances of the church in England, Wales and English controlled parts of Ireland made in 1535 on the orders of Henry VIII....
, a comprehensive survey of the church's property. It found that Gisborough Priory had an annual net value of £628.6s.8d., which made it the fourth wealthiest monastic house in Yorkshire. In 1536 all monasteries with less than £200 of annual income were suppressed but the priory's wealth meant that it was exempt from this first wave of suppression.
The Valor was followed by a second survey, carried out by the King's commissioners Thomas Legh and Richard Leyton. It provided for the final suppression of the monasteries on charges of a lack of quality of religious life. Prior James Cockerell of Guisborough was forced to resign and was replaced with Robert Pursglove, who was seen as more loyal to the new government. The priory's dissolution was not welcomed by the locals, who derived considerable economic benefit from its presence – in 1536, around 500 families in Guisborough depended on the priory for their livelihoods. The strength of local feeling was recorded in a letter from Lord Conyers and Sir John Bulmer to Thomas Cromwell: "On Sunday, 11th July [1539], at Gysburn in Yorkshire, when the parish priest was declaring the articles [of dissolution] directed by the King to the Archbishop of York, one John Atkeynson alias Brotton came violently and took book forth of the priest's hands, and pulled it in pieces." Popular discontent with the dissolution of the monasteries sparked a major uprising, the Pilgrimage of Grace
Pilgrimage of Grace
The Pilgrimage of Grace was a popular rising in York, Yorkshire during 1536, in protest against Henry VIII's break with the Roman Catholic Church and the Dissolution of the Monasteries, as well as other specific political, social and economic grievances. It was done in action against Thomas Cromwell...
, in which the former Prior Cockerell was implicated; when the revolt failed he was hanged at Tyburn
Tyburn
Tyburn is a former village just outside the then boundaries of London that was best known as a place of public execution.Tyburn may also refer to:* Tyburn , river and historical water source in London...
along with the Prior of Bridlington, the Abbot of Jervaulx and the former Abbot of Fountains.
The Priory was formally dissolved on 8 April 1540 and was surrendered to the King's men on 22 December 1540, making it one of the last monastic houses in England to be suppressed. A proposal to found a secular college at the former priory came to nothing and the priory buildings – with the exception of the gatehouses and the great east window – were soon demolished. On 21 November 1541 Thomas Legh was granted a lease "of the buildings with the site and precincts of the Priory to be then demolished and carried away." The demolition was carried out by collapsing the central tower of the priory into the body of the church, crushing it in its fall and reducing the building to a pile of rubble.
The site and lands were subsequently re-let in 1550 to Sir Thomas Chaloner
Thomas Chaloner (statesman)
Sir Thomas Chaloner was an English statesman and poet.-Life:He was the son of Roger Chaloner, mercer of London, a descendant of the Denbighshire Chaloners...
, who later purchased the property outright. The Chaloners first occupied the former priors' quarters in the west range before moving in the late 17th century to their new mansion, Old Gisborough Hall, on Bow Street. The remains of the priory were cleared away and the fallen stonework was either looted or sold. The grounds were redeveloped as formal gardens within the extensive grounds of Old Gisborough Hall. John Walker Ord, a local historian in the mid-19th century, described how the priory's stonework could be seen in many buildings around Guisborough. He deplored the profane uses to which it had been put:
Some fragments of Gisborough Priory travelled considerably further afield. At Hardwick Hall
Hardwick Hall Country Park
Hardwick Hall County Park is a park located in County Durham near Sedgefield. It is registered with the Register of Parks and Gardens as a II* site, which indicates that a park is "of exceptional historic interest."-History:...
near Sedgefield
Sedgefield
Sedgefield is a small town and civil parish in County Durham, England. It has a population of 4,534.Sedgefield has attracted particular attention as the Member of Parliament for the wider Sedgefield constituency was the former Prime Minister Tony Blair; he was the area's MP from 1983 to 2008,...
, a mock ruin was built incorporating sculptured stones brought from the site of the priory. The wealth of the priory became the stuff of local legends, one of which claims that an underground passage leads from the priory to a cave under the hills in which a raven stands guard over a chest of gold.
The priory's lands around Guisborough became the source of considerable wealth for the Chaloners. Around 1595, Sir Thomas Chaloner's son
Thomas Chaloner (naturalist)
Sir Thomas Chaloner was an English naturalist.-Life:He was the son of statesman and poet Sir Thomas Chaloner. He was tutor to Prince Henry, son of James I, and was also responsible for introducing alum manufacturing to England. He was Member of Parliament for St Mawes in 1586 and for Lostwithiel...
, also called Thomas, established England's first alum
Alum
Alum is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate with the formula KAl2.12H2O. The wider class of compounds known as alums have the related empirical formula, AB2.12H2O.-Chemical properties:Alums are...
works at Belman Bank just south of Guisborough. Alum was a very important product at that time with a variety of industrial uses. It was especially important to the English cloth industry as a mordant
Mordant
A mordant is a substance used to set dyes on fabrics or tissue sections by forming a coordination complex with the dye which then attaches to the fabric or tissue. It may be used for dyeing fabrics, or for intensifying stains in cell or tissue preparations. The term mordant comes from the Latin...
(a substance used to fix dyes on cloth). The supply of alum was controlled by a cartel controlled by the Papal States
Papal States
The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...
and Spain. Both were in conflict with England but were able to exercise a virtual monopoly on the provision of alum to Christian Europe, as the importation of cheaper Turkish alum had been banned under Pope Paul II
Pope Paul II
Pope Paul II , born Pietro Barbo, was pope from 1464 until his death in 1471.- Early life :He was born in Venice, and was a nephew of Pope Eugene IV , through his mother. His adoption of the spiritual career, after having been trained as a merchant, was prompted by his uncle's election as pope...
in the mid-15th century. A widely reported story states that Chaloner visited the Pope's alum
Alum
Alum is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate with the formula KAl2.12H2O. The wider class of compounds known as alums have the related empirical formula, AB2.12H2O.-Chemical properties:Alums are...
works at Tolfa
Tolfa
Tolfa is a town and comune of the province of Rome, in the Lazio region of central Italy; it lies to the ENE of Civitavecchia by road.It is the main center in the Monti della Tolfa, an extinct volcanic group between Civitavecchia and the Lake of Bracciano....
near Rome, While there, Chaloner noticed that the soil and vegetation in the area of the alum works resembled those of his estate at Guisborough. On his return he established his own alum works at Belman Bank with the aid of workmen smuggled from Rome, earning him a papal excommunication. John Walker Ord casts doubt on this story, noting that an account published a few decades afterwards states that the workmen actually came from France and does not mention Chaloner's travels in Italy.
The only substantial part of Gisborough Priory to survive in anything like its original form was the eastern gable of the presbytery with its great east window. This survival owed much to the rise of Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
in the 18th century. The portrayal of ruined buildings in idealised landscapes by J. M. W. Turner
J. M. W. Turner
Joseph Mallord William Turner RA was an English Romantic landscape painter, watercolourist and printmaker. Turner was considered a controversial figure in his day, but is now regarded as the artist who elevated landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting...
and his contemporaries inspired a fashion for the local nobility and gentry to produce their own paintings of local monasteries. This provided an incentive for landowners to preserve them as romantic ruins, rather than using them as quarries. Gisborough Priory's east window was one of the first examples of a monastic ruin to be retained for its visual qualities. It was incorporated into the grounds of Old Gisborough Hall to serve as a romantic ruin and the sill of the great window was removed to ensure an uninterrupted view.
A manicured lawn, known as the East Lawn, was laid out in front of the east window and was used for grand bazaars and fêtes until as late as the early 20th century. A ha-ha was installed behind the east window to keep cattle out of the priory grounds. To the south of the priory buildings a terrace, known as the Long Terrace, ran almost the full length of the priory grounds. It afforded access to the priory ruins via a flight of steps flanked by two carved demi-sea wolves, reflecting the coat of arms of the Chaloners. They were mistakenly thought to be dragons by local people and the steps were referred to as the Dragon Steps.
Old Gisborough Hall was pulled down around 1825 and the Chaloners built a new mansion house, the current Gisborough Hall
Gisborough Hall
Gisborough Hall is a 19th century mansion house, now a hotel, at Guisborough, Redcar and Cleveland, England. It is a Grade II listed building....
, about half a mile to the east in 1857. In 1932, Thomas Chaloner, 2nd Baron Gisborough
Thomas Chaloner, 2nd Baron Gisborough
Thomas Weston Peel Long Chaloner, 2nd Baron Gisborough was an English landowner, soldier and Peer.The second son of Richard Godolphin Walmesley Chaloner, 1st Baron Gisborough and his wife Margaret Mary Ann Brocklesby Davis, he was born in Sedgehill, Wiltshire and educated at Rottingdean, Radley...
transferred control of the priory to the Office of Works
Office of Works
The Office of Works was established in the English Royal household in 1378 to oversee the building of the royal castles and residences. In 1832 it became the Works Department within the Office of Woods, Forests, Land Revenues, Works and Buildings...
. It later became the responsibility of the Ministry of Works, then the Department of the Environment
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is the government department responsible for environmental protection, food production and standards, agriculture, fisheries and rural communities in the United Kingdom...
and finally English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
from 1984. It remains the property of Lord Gisborough; English Heritage is responsible for maintaining the ruins, while the day-to-day running is in the charge of Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.
According to local folklore, the priory is haunted by the ghost of a monk in a black habit who returns to the ruins annually to check that the priory's buried treasure has not been disturbed. He is said to arrive at midnight on the year's first new moon to lower a ghostly drawbridge spanning a vanished moat. In 1966 and 1967 a hundred people turned out to watch for the black monk and allegedly managed to spot a cowled figure, but in 1968 the few spectators who turned up saw nothing.
The priory church
The priory church only survives today in a fragmentary state, dominated by the nearly intact east wall of the presbyteryPresbytery (architecture)
The presbytery is the name for an area in a church building which is reserved for the clergy.In the oldest church it is separated by short walls, by small columns and pilasters in the Renaissance ones; it can also be raised, being reachable by a few steps, usually with railings....
that still stands to its full height. The eastern gable wall is dominated by a great east window and is regarded as one of the finest examples of late 13th century church architecture. Its design is so close to that of the eastern arm of Ripon Cathedral
Ripon Cathedral
Ripon Cathedral is the seat of the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds and the mother church of the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, situated in the small North Yorkshire city of Ripon, England.-Background:...
, which was built around the same time, that it is thought to have been directly modelled on Ripon's design. The window's tracery
Tracery
In architecture, Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. The term probably derives from the 'tracing floors' on which the complex patterns of late Gothic windows were laid out.-Plate tracery:...
has disappeared, as has its sill, but it can be deduced from the stubs and surviving fragments that it had seven major lights (the glazed openings in the window). At its centre was a great circle of tracery filled with trefoil
Trefoil
Trefoil is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings used in architecture and Christian symbolism...
ed lights. The main gable of the east wall is flanked with a pair of massive buttresses, each capped with gables and octagonal pinnacles. A similar pair of pinnacles top the main gable, flanking a window of unusual design; a bracket projects from the lower lobe to support a large statue (no longer present), possibly of the Virgin Mary, to whom the priory was dedicated.
Little remains above ground of the rest of the priory, but much can be deduced from the surviving stonework. In its final form the priory had a nave of eight bays and a quire and presbytery of nine bays, with a total length of 107 metres (351 ft). The survival of the east wall allows us to deduce that the ridge line of the roof stood 29.6 metres (97.1 ft) above ground. The presbytery's arcades were supported by eight clustered shafts, the bases of which are still visible, with capitals
Capital (architecture)
In architecture the capital forms the topmost member of a column . It mediates between the column and the load thrusting down upon it, broadening the area of the column's supporting surface...
carved with naturalistic foliage. The clerestory
Clerestory
Clerestory is an architectural term that historically denoted an upper level of a Roman basilica or of the nave of a Romanesque or Gothic church, the walls of which rise above the rooflines of the lower aisles and are pierced with windows. In modern usage, clerestory refers to any high windows...
and triforium
Triforium
A triforium is a shallow arched gallery within the thickness of inner wall, which stands above the nave of a church or cathedral. It may occur at the level of the clerestory windows, or it may be located as a separate level below the clerestory. It may itself have an outer wall of glass rather than...
were combined into a single arch with the main arcade below. The presbytery's high vault was executed in stone with bosses decorated in red and white paint and gold leaf, traces of which were still visible when several of the bosses were found in the 19th century. The eastern bay of the presbytery was divided into a number of chapels and the remnants of parclose screens are still visible on the main aisle's north and south respond
Respond
A respond is a half-pier or half-pillar which is bonded into a wall and designed to carry the springer at one end of an arch....
s. The main altar would have stood a short distance to the west, behind a tall screen.
At the angle of each aisle, a spiral staircase – still visible on each side of the surviving east wall – gave access to a passages inside the walls and to secondary stairs within the angles of the main gable. This enabled access to all parts of the building for maintenance and cleaning without requiring scaffolding. Nothing now remains of the north or south transepts, which projected beyond the present boundary wall into what is now the graveyard of the modern Saint Nicholas' Church next door.
A number of burials (presumably of high-ranking benefactors and clergy) were made within the priory building and several stone coffins were recovered by 19th century excavators. They are visible today against the east wall, but unfortunately their original location was not recorded and is not known. A pair of centrally placed grave slabs are still visible in a central location below the east window. In addition to the graves, the priory once also housed the Brus cenotaph, a memorial erected in 1521. It was removed from the priory in 1540 and was dismantled. It was reassembled in the 19th century and is now displayed in Saint Nicholas' Church.
Ranges and cloister
The fragments of several other buildings associated with the priory can also be seen on the site. There was a substantial cloisterCloister
A cloister is a rectangular open space surrounded by covered walks or open galleries, with open arcades on the inner side, running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth...
measuring 36.5 metres (119.8 ft) square to the south side of the priory church, surrounded by domestic buildings or ranges. They replaced an earlier cloister and ranges that had been destroyed in the fire of 1289 but were quickly rebuilt to a new, larger, design. Processional doors along the cloister's north wall gave access to the nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
of the priory church. In 1854, surviving arches and columns from the cloister were taken to London to be displayed in the Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and glass building originally erected in Hyde Park, London, England, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in the Palace's of exhibition space to display examples of the latest technology developed in...
where they were used as the basis for a reconstruction of a medieval cloister in the "English National Art Court" section of the exhibition.
Little now remains of the cloister but significant fragments of the west range – known as the cellarer's range – are still extant. It would have been entered from the west by an outer parlour, projecting outwards from the north end of the range, where members of the priory community could receive visitors. The Prior himself would have lived on the missing upper floor of the range, which comprised a hall, chamber and chapel dedicated to Saint Hilda. The prior's rooms were most probably located above the outer parlour, as was the pattern at other monasteries, which would have given him access to both the cloister and the outside world.
The largest surviving fragment of the range comprises a cellarium or storehouse where the priory's supplies would have been kept. This consists of a vaulted undercroft of nine bays constructed from ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
with a floor level set below that of the cloister. It is relatively well-preserved and is believed to have originally been divided by timber partitions. These were later replaced in stone.
Most of the refectory
Refectory
A refectory is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries...
(dining hall) range to the south of the cloister and the dorter range to the east, which contained the chapter house
Chapter house
A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room attached to a cathedral or collegiate church in which meetings are held. They can also be found in medieval monasteries....
and dormitory, have yet to be excavated. Only the western end of the refectory range has been excavated; it presents a vaulted undercroft, three bays of which survive, above which the refectory itself would have been located on the first floor. A service passage also survives leading between the site of the kitchen and the refectory. The western part of the undercroft was used as a buttery
Buttery (room)
A buttery was a domestic room in a large medieval house. Along with the pantry, it was generally part of the offices pertaining to the kitchen. Reached from the screens passage at the low end of the Great Hall the buttery was traditionally the place from which the yeoman of the buttery served beer...
during the late Middle Ages but would have had severely restricted headroom due to its raised flood.
Outer buildings
The priory buildings stood at the centre of a walled monastic precinct arranged in two courts, inner and outer. Gatehouses stood at the entrances to both courts; the remains of the great gate of the inner court are still extant but the outer gatehouse no longer survives. The gate originally comprised an outer porch, an inner gatehall and a porter's lodge on the ground floor with chambers above the arch. It survived intact as late as the early 18th century but only the outer porch remains today.The structure consists of a single large round-headed archway on the outer side with two smaller arches of different sizes a few metres to the south, both deeply rebated to accommodate doors. The larger arch was for wagons while pedestrians entered through the smaller arch. Little now remains of the gatehall or the porter's lodge; the only remnants now visible are the stub of the lodge's north wall and a latrine
Latrine
A latrine is a communal facility containing one or more commonly many toilets which may be simple pit toilets or in the case of the United States Armed Forces any toilet including modern flush toilets...
shaft.
The canons also constructed an octagonal dovecote
Dovecote
A dovecote or dovecot is a structure intended to house pigeons or doves. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonholes for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in...
a short distance to the west of the west range to provide them The dovecote is still extant, though it cannot currently be visited and is not part of the priory grounds. Built in the 14th century, the dovecote was modified in the mid-18th century with the addition of a pyramidal roof tiled with Welsh slate
Slate industry in Wales
The slate industry in Wales began during the Roman period when slate was used to roof the fort at Segontium, now Caernarfon. The slate industry grew slowly until the early 18th century, then expanded rapidly until the late 19th century, at which time the most important slate producing areas were in...
and capped with an open-sided timber cupola. The original nesting boxes have been removed and the dovecote is now used as a garden store.
Older buildings on the site
Gisborough Priory was rebuilt three times during its life; the ruins visible today are principally those of the third and final rebuild. The site had already been occupied in Saxon times by at least one previous structure, possibly an timber-framed church or boundary wall, indicated by a number of postholes. It is believed that there was a Saxon settlement in the vicinity as late Saxon potsherds and an eighth-century coin have been found buried under the remains of the priory's west nave. The site was abandoned at some point thereafter; by the time the priory was built the land on which it stood was mostly under cultivation. Part of it was in use as a graveyard by the early 12th century and an early Norman building had been erected in the vicinity, possibly a temporary church.The original Norman priory, completed around 1180, was relatively short and narrow. It was constructed in the Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
style with twin aisles on either side of the nave and a single tower at the west end, aligned with the main axis of the church. It could be entered from both the north, via an external door, and from the south via the cloister. The existence of the northward door suggests that it was used by a secular congregation, possibly the local nobility and patrons of the priory. A number of graves associated with the first priory have been found in the south aisle's floor and against the north wall.
It was rebuilt around 1200 on a much larger scale with the Romanesque church being demolished down to its first course of ashlar
Ashlar
Ashlar is prepared stone work of any type of stone. Masonry using such stones laid in parallel courses is known as ashlar masonry, whereas masonry using irregularly shaped stones is known as rubble masonry. Ashlar blocks are rectangular cuboid blocks that are masonry sculpted to have square edges...
. The construction of the new church continued through much of the 13th century. The enlarged priory had twin towers at the west end flanking a large double doorway above which was a central rose window
Rose window
A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architectural style and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery...
; water was provided via a piped water supply using lead pipes leading from the cloister, under the church and out to buildings or standpipes to the north or west of the priory. The main body of the church comprised a nave with two aisles, transepts and a choir. The aisles were laid with geometric coloured tiles adjoining the sandstone columns of the nave. The north aisle was divided into alcoves or private chapels where a number of people – probably local nobles and gentry – were buried. An unusual feature of the church was a well, sunk into the nave, possibly built in an effort to safeguard the priory's water supplies.
The effects of the fire that destroyed the priory in 1289 can still be seen in the scorched paving between the surviving pillars of the church. It was originally thought that the church had been completely rebuilt, but excavations in the 1980s have shown that in fact a substantial amount of the less damaged west end was largely reused. This resulted in a distinct inconsistency between the two ends of the priory, which were constructed in different architectural styles. The rebuilding was a major task that took several generations and was probably not completed until the end of the fourteenth century. It is unclear exactly how much of the second priory survived the fire. Where the priory was rebuilt, its builders evidently sought to reuse as much as possible; the core of the surviving eastern gable wall is full of fragments from the destroyed second priory.
Priory Gardens and Monks' Pond
The land immediately south of the priory was used by the Chaloners for many years as the site of formal gardens that were originally attached to the Old Gisborough Hall. In the early 18th century they planted an oval-shaped double avenue of trees, known as the Monks' Walk, where stonework recovered from mid-19th century excavations was later deposited. In between the trees was a manicured lawn that was later often used to hold musical and theatrical productions. The Monks' Walk fell into disuse and became overgrown but is currently under restoration by the Gisborough Priory Project.In the late 19th century, Margaret Chaloner, the wife of the first Lord Gisborough
Richard Chaloner, 1st Baron Gisborough
Richard Godolphin Walmesley Chaloner, 1st Baron Gisborough was a British soldier and politician...
, began laying out a new series of formal gardens. These were of a typical late Victorian and Edwardian design with elaborate bedding schemes and gravelled paths. The gardens included a rose garden and a sunken Italian garden that had an ornamental pool at its centre. They were open to the public for a small fee and could be entered through a gateway on Bow Street.
Further east, off the Whitby Road, is the Monks' Pond, which – as the name suggests – was used by the canons as a fish pond. It presents a dramatic vista in which the priory arch is reflected and has often been photographed and painted. In 1908, the pond was the scene of an elaborate water tableau organised by Lady Gisborough to raise funds for the restoration of St Nicholas' Church. It was long home to a number of exceptionally large fish, but a pollution incident in 2000 apparently caused by a sewage leak led to the death of more than 5,000 fish in the pond.
Other properties owned by Gisborough Priory
In addition to the main building in Guisborough, the priory was also responsible for the leperLeprosy
Leprosy or Hansen's disease is a chronic disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae and Mycobacterium lepromatosis. Named after physician Gerhard Armauer Hansen, leprosy is primarily a granulomatous disease of the peripheral nerves and mucosa of the upper respiratory tract; skin lesions...
hospital of St. Leonard's at Hutton Lowcross, just to the west of Guisborough. The hospital was probably founded in the 12th century and became a dependency of the priory in 1275. It was last documented in 1339. Its fate is unclear but it seems likely that it survived until the Dissolution in 1540.
The priory may also have owned a cell at Scarth Wood at Whorlton
Whorlton, North Yorkshire
Whorlton is a hamlet and civil parish in the Hambleton district of North Yorkshire, England. It is very near Swainby and the A19, and 6 miles south west of Stokesley. Features include the remains of Whorlton Castle and the Church of the Holy Rood....
. A grant issued by Stephen de Meynell during the reign of Henry I records the donation of the hamlet of Scarth to enable the priory to establish a cell there, for habitation by a single monk or canon. It is unclear whether the cell was ever actually built, as Scarth is not mentioned in the priory's deeds or in Henry VIII's commissioners' valuation of the priory's property. However, some fragmentary building remains at Scarth are recorded as existing at the site in the mid-18th century. They were cleared away by the start of the 19th century so there is now no trace left of whatever might once have stood there or what it might have been used for.
Excavations
Gisborough Priory has been excavated on a number of occasions. In 1865–1867 Captain Thomas Chaloner and William Downing Bruce carried out the first major excavation by cutting a trench across the site. A number of features were discovered, including a stone coffin containing the skeleton of a tall man thought to be that of Robert de Brus, the remnants of a monumental shrine and painted roof bosses. Evidence of the 1289 fire was also discovered in the form of pieces of fused metal – an amalgam of lead, silver and iron that had melted together and penetrated through the floor of the building in the heat of the fire. The Office of Works carried out some archaeological works in 1932 in connection with consolidating the walls and grounds so that they could be opened to the public. Further work was carried out by Roy Gilyard Beer between 1947–54 for the Ministry of Works, which exposed more of the site and cleared away material from the 19th century.In 1985–86 Cleveland County Archaeology Section carried out a major excavation of the west end of the nave to consolidate an area of subsidence. The subsidence turned out to be caused by a previously unrecorded burial vault. The excavators uncovered a considerable amount of new information about the priory's history. They found more evidence of the fire which had destroyed the building in 1289 including scorched masonry, a shattered bell and broken grave-slabs. The remains of 47 individuals – 21 men, 17 women, 6 children and three others of undetermined gender – were discovered, some of which had been buried with grave goods including a gold finger ring, jet
Jet (lignite)
Jet is a geological material and is considered to be a minor gemstone. Jet is not considered a true mineral, but rather a mineraloid as it has an organic origin, being derived from decaying wood under extreme pressure....
crosses and two chalice
Chalice
A chalice is a goblet or footed cup intended to hold a drink. This can also refer to;* Holy Chalice, the vessel which Jesus used at the Last Supper to serve the wine* Chalice , a type of smoking pipe...
s and patten
Patten (shoe)
Pattens are protective overshoes worn in Europe from the Middle Ages until the early 20th century. Pattens were worn outdoors over a normal shoe, held in place by leather or cloth bands, with a wooden or later wood and metal sole...
s buried with two priests. The skeletons were later cremated and the ashes were scattered in the centre of the Monks' Walk in the Priory Gardens. A geophysical survey
Geophysical survey
Geophysical survey is the systematic collection of geophysical data for spatial studies. Geophysical surveys may use a great variety of sensing instruments, and data may be collected from above or below the Earth's surface or from aerial or marine platforms. Geophysical surveys have many...
was also carried out to the west and east of the west range, indicating the existence of the buried remains of other monastic buildings which have yet to be excavated.
Priors of Gisborough Priory
Between its establishment and its dissolution, 24 priors were recorded holding office at Gisborough Priory. Their names and dates of taking office, where known, were as follows:- William de Brus (1119–45?)
- Cuthbert (1146–54)
- Ralph (1174?–80)
- Roald (1199-?)
- Lawrence (1211–12)
- Michael (1218–34)
- John (1239–51, 1257)
- Simon (date uncertain)
- Ralph de Irton (1262)
- Adam de Newland (1280)
- William de Middleburgh (1281)
- Robert de Wilton (1320–1)
- John de Darlington (1346)
- John de Horeworth or Hurworth (1364–93)
- Walter de Thorp (1393)
- John de Helmesley (1408)
- John Thweng (1425)
- Richard Ayreton (1437)
- Richard de Hoton (1452)
- Thomas Darlington (1455)
- John Moreby (1475)
- John Whitby (1491–1505)
- John Moreby (1505)
- William Spires (1511)
- James Cockerill (1519–1534?)
- Robert Pursglove (1537, 1539)
External links
- Visitor information (English Heritage)
- Gisborough Priory PDF: English Heritage teachers' guide
- Gisborough Priory Project
- Detailed historical record for Gisborough Priory