Mount Grace Priory
 Abbeys |
Mount Grace Priory is a 14 th century Carthusian charterhouse, one of only ten founded in England, and quite unlike any of the other monastic ruins surviving today. Of the ten, Mount Grace is by far the easiest of access and the best preserved.
Founded in 1398 by Carthusian followers of St Bruno, the 11 th century originator of this austere contemplative order, Mount Grace was sited in a remote rural landscape hemmed in by wooded hills; as is its want, the 21 st century has now encroached upon this seclusion. Compared with the grand abbey ruins found elsewhere in Yorkshire that expressed great wealth and power, this priory reflects an altogether different type of religious institution whose monks sought to return to the simple ways of the early church. Their means of achieving this was to live as hermits, each occupying his own cell, where they lived, worked and prayed in virtual isolation from each other - so different from the other orders whose daily regime was communal.
What remain to us today are the ruins of a series of these cells or houses, most of it not much above knee height. Of the 23 cells in evidence, 15 of them are clustered around the perimeter of a very large open cloister. Fortunately for the visitor who is looking for more than mere foundation ruins, one of the cells has been reconstructed to demonstrate how it would have appeared in the 15 th century, complete with sparse furnishings of the day. Basic, but not unattractive, the cells were self-contained two-up and two-down small houses with their own courtyard garden and external toilet. Denying themselves any luxuries the Carthusian day revolved around contemplation and constant prayer. A rigorous and spartan order they did not tolerate any laxness - a fall from grace resulted in time spent behind bars, there is evidence of a prison on the site.
The base of a water tower is barely visible in the centre of the cloister, but more obvious are the latrine and drainage channels criss-crossing the site, evidence that hygiene was not ignored by this ascetic order. Fascinating too, are the well-houses on the hillside behind the priory, located over springs from which fresh water was obtained. The original well-houses were in a state of collapse until restored and reconstructed in the mid 20 th century. On one side of the cloister the remaining walls of a fairly modest church survive to a good height, while the perpendicular tower at the crossing point stands virtually intact despite having lost its transepts.
A visit to the humble remains of Mount Grace Priory is a poignant reminder that not all medieval religion was housed in grand Cistercian and Benedictine citadels, a notion that the many large abbey ruins may suggest. This little site bespeaks and evokes the spirit of the Carthusian order; that it laid less emphasis on visual display and stressed more the spiritual commune with god and being at one with nature is self-evident throughout.