Author solves mystery of the missing abbey (From Gazette & Herald)

Author solves mystery of the missing abbey

FOR decades, tourists have gone to the beauty spot of Rosedale Abbey, near Pickering, in search of the abbey - but to no avail.

However, after three years of leading the fascinating research into its history, Duncan Herd, local church warden and member of the church council, has discovered that there was not only a thriving priory at Rosedale, but its 10 nuns were amazingly resourceful. They ran 40 farms and six mills, exporting wares to Italy, says Mr Herd.

"Initially, I thought they were 10 little nuns who spent their time praying in the chapel, but far from it. They produced some of the finest wool in Europe and employed 70 people."

Now, a new book - Rosedale Abbey: The Story of a Medieval Nuns' Priory, 1154-1536 - has been published and is already having to be re-printed because of the demand, says Mr Herd.

The proceeds have so far raised more than £2,000 for the Church of St Mary and St Laurence. "There has been a lot of help from the villagers - and a lot of luck in our research," says Mr Herd, who has found there were some 23 nuns' priories in Yorkshire, with Rosedale's being one of the most successful.

Others in the Ryedale area were to be found at Handale, Keldholme, Baysdale and Hutton, he says.

"The new evidence we have found shows that for the past 300 years, historians have under-estimated the size of Rosedale Priory Church," said Mr Herd.

The Cistercian priory was a small, but thriving religious community of nuns, lay brothers and sisters, farm workers and servants who for 380 years were self-sufficient, industrious and success.

"The nuns coped with drought, famine, sheep scab epidemics, raiding Scottish armies, the plague and even hostility from much of the authoritarian male-dominated church," says Mr Herd.

They also grew an extensive range of herbs for their infirmary.

They were said to drink 56 pints of beer a week because of the lack of drinking water!

Mr Herd praises Katie Seekings, who edited the book, and the Rev Dr Alastair Ferguson, Rosedale's vicar, for his leadership in overseeing the project.

As the research gathered pace, historians John Sugden, Ted O'Brien and Paul Tranmer discovered old prints of the village and priory ruins. They confirmed that the turret tower next to the church formed the south-west corner of the priory.

The team of researchers also included Mary Warren, Gill Brewer, Janet Dring, together with University of Sheffield, York Borthwick Institute and the Cambridge Library.

"Visitors to Rosedale who ask 'Where is the abbey?' - and many do - can now read a comprehensive account of exactly where it stood, together with the life of the nuns and how the wool produced from the abbey farms was reputed to be the finest in Europe and as a result was exported to merchants in Italy.

"To achieve all they did, the prioresses and nuns must have been women of steel. They were really exceptional women," says Mr Herd, the co-author of the book.

Because of the terrain of the area around Rosedale, they had to use oxen rather than horses on the farms.

The Rosedale Abbey, which was founded in 1154 and dissolved in 1538, was, in fact, not an abbey, he says, but a nunnery of a lower status, a priory.

Little remains of the priory itself - the staircase and some relics can be found in the church and on houses which were built from the priory stone after it was dissolved.

Dr Ferguson, in his foreword, says: "Monastery ruins carry a romantic fascination for many of us, perhaps as a link to a bygone age."

However, while monastic life had its critics, monasteries did a great deal of good, being centres of learning, and some, like Rosedale's, were involved in teaching children.

"I believe that our society does not realise the extent of the wound caused to the English Church, indeed to the whole of English culture, by the turmoil and cruelty of the 16th century Reformation," says Dr Ferguson.

"Monasteries were taken by the Crown, Christians put one another to death, and within a mere half century, everyday life had changed almost out of all recognition. It is arguable that we have not yet recovered from all this and that we continue to carry these painful events deep in our religious subconscious."

The book's popularity is benefiting the village church coffers. "It costs £36,000 a year to run, which takes a lot of raising," said Mr Herd.

Copies of the book can be obtained from bookshops in Pickering, Helmsley, shops in Rosedale, the church, Lastingham and Malton churches, or from Mr Herd at 2 Low Bell End Cottages, Rosedale Abbey, telephone (01751) 417654.

Updated: 15:31 Wednesday, January 18, 2006