Here we are down at the Abbey. As seems to be the style of abbeys this one is HUGE! It was founded by St. Bernard of Clairvaux. He started with 12 monks in 1132. From this rather humble beginning the monastery grew to be one of the wealthiest in medieval England. Apparently there were around 600 monks living here at one point.
Here I am inside the chapel area next to one of the support pillars. I still can't believe how huge these buildings are given the technology of the day. They were certainly hard workers!
Below is a view of the chapel from down where the entrance to the monastery was. It's just so huge and this picture gives a bit of that idea. Off to the right hand side would have been the dormatories. Further off from there was the kitchen, the eating area, the tannery and all sorts of other places where various work was done. They even had an infirmary for sick or aging monks. They also had a nifty system of sewage disposal and a row of latrines.
The monastery was self-sustaining and we learned that the monks were given two habits (robes) to wear. One for the summer and a thicker one for the winter. I'm telling you, I would have frozen to death had that been me. I'm sure it was absolutely freezing inside those stone walls in the winters. I'm afraid I just don't go in for monastic life. The monks weren't even allowed to talk to each other at meal times and developed a system of hand signals so that they could express their wishes while eating. Amazing! I'm so glad that monastic life is an invention of man and not God's plan for running things.
I just love these arches. One of the amusing things about this place was the large family of pigeons that lived atop these pillars and archways. Periodically the entire flock of them--probably 40 or more--would all fly into the air at the same time and swoop all around these pillars and then all settle back down at the top. Maybe they were learning to fly in formation and through obstacles, but it was an interesting thing to witness even if there didn't seem to be a good reason for it.
Here I am inside the chapel area next to one of the support pillars. I still can't believe how huge these buildings are given the technology of the day. They were certainly hard workers!
Below is a view of the chapel from down where the entrance to the monastery was. It's just so huge and this picture gives a bit of that idea. Off to the right hand side would have been the dormatories. Further off from there was the kitchen, the eating area, the tannery and all sorts of other places where various work was done. They even had an infirmary for sick or aging monks. They also had a nifty system of sewage disposal and a row of latrines.
The monastery was self-sustaining and we learned that the monks were given two habits (robes) to wear. One for the summer and a thicker one for the winter. I'm telling you, I would have frozen to death had that been me. I'm sure it was absolutely freezing inside those stone walls in the winters. I'm afraid I just don't go in for monastic life. The monks weren't even allowed to talk to each other at meal times and developed a system of hand signals so that they could express their wishes while eating. Amazing! I'm so glad that monastic life is an invention of man and not God's plan for running things.
I just love these arches. One of the amusing things about this place was the large family of pigeons that lived atop these pillars and archways. Periodically the entire flock of them--probably 40 or more--would all fly into the air at the same time and swoop all around these pillars and then all settle back down at the top. Maybe they were learning to fly in formation and through obstacles, but it was an interesting thing to witness even if there didn't seem to be a good reason for it.
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