Furness Abbey

Whilst hunting out news this morning I stumbled across the information that a medieval small crozier and ring had been found in a grave at Furness Abbey.  Remembering I had seen the abbey in an old book, the Ruined Abbeys of Great Britain I pulled it down and read the long histories of Furness and Whitby Abbeys.  Fascinated as always, the abbey of Furness was built in the Glen of the Deadly Nightshade, did the cook  absentmindedly poison the flock of monks so that this warranted a 15th century poet too write about it?.

Well I spent all morning reading the book and also putting together an itinerary of all the great North Yorkshire Cistercian abbeys we could visit when next up North.  Forgetting at the same time to make any bread for lunch!

The following four photos are taken from the book and show Furness Abbey, the book itself was written late 19th century, and I sometimes feel it should be transcribed to the web for its diligence and interesting facts about the monastic houses and their dissolution.

The next photos are Whitby or Streoneshall Abbey, home of St.Hilda and the great Easter Day debate, (The Synod of Whitby) and also of course Caedmon's poem... The tinted plates are not fabulous but the black and white illustration are well executed.