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Rievaulx Abbey: lands and possessions
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The Cistercians sought to live simply by the
fruits of their own labour and in order to sustain a self-sufficient
community each abbey required a variety of possessions, such as
arable and pastoral land, woodland, mills, fisheries and mineral
rights. Upon its foundation, every Cistercian abbey was endowed
with the resources necessary to provide for the community. The
monks had then to acquire additional lands and rights to support
the abbey’s growth.
The acquisition of lands and rights by Rievaulx was in many ways
similar to that of other Cistercian abbeys throughout the country.
A modest grant from the founder, Walter
Espec, provided the essential
resources for the community to establish monastic life. A period
of slow and steady growth was followed in the mid-twelfth century
by an economic high, with a considerable increase in the number
and geographical spread of benefactions. The thirteenth century
saw a tailing off in patronage and in the later Middle Ages there
was a change in the nature of land-holding, as some of the abbey’s
lands were now leased.(1)
The monks acquired a variety of landholdings to provide for all
aspects of monastic life. These included arable and pastoral
lands, which were largely located to the north and east of
abbey; cereal
crops were grown to the north-west. The community had fisheries
in the North, by the Lower Tees valley, and wool production was
concentrated in the Vale of Pickering.(2)
In this section you can read a brief chronological
survey of
how and where Rievaulx acquired its holdings, of the motives of
its benefactors, and of the various kinds of lands and possessions
that the community held: arable and pastoral lands, woodland,
mills, fisheries and turburies, and urban holdings.
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