Roche Abbey
 Abbeys |
Roche was a Cistercian abbey founded in 1147 by a colony of monks from Newminster in Northumberland, a daughter-house of Fountains Abbey. Although this is the official founding date, in fact construction of the stone buildings on the north side of Maltby Beck did not begin for another 25 years. The initial building programme, a simple church with accommodation for the monks, was a temporary affair employing wood as the building material. A surviving charter from one of Roche's patrons gave the monks permission to cut down trees from the forest of Maltby, under the supervision of the local forester, thus providing them with sufficient wood. One of the more fascinating aspects of this site is that the brook called Maltby Beck runs through the abbey grounds and is crossed in several places by the buildings of the cloister.
By the end of the 12 th century construction of this huge Norman abbey had been completed, as had most of the buildings about the cloister. Unfortunately, most of the buildings only survive to us as low standing walls, the reason for this will be explained later, but the mighty church transepts remain almost to their full height. These two wonderfully evocative edifices are magnificent examples of French-influenced early Gothic architecture. Their massive size is a mute reminder of how enormous this abbey complex must have been in its heyday, although, conversely, it reminds us too of how much architectural beauty is lost. Further buildings were constructed on the south side of the brook in the 13 th century, including the Abbot's lodging house, the kitchen and the infirmary. An arched bridge was built over Maltby Beck at this period to connect both sides of the abbey complex - this 13 th century bridge still spans the brook.
Little is known of the history of Roche Abbey until the Dissolution as no records have been discovered. In 1538 when the abbey, as with all others, fell victim to the harsh edict of Henry VIII, it is known that only 14 monks and 4 novices were in residence there. The general procedure for buildings that became Crown property was that anything of value was sold off before rendering it unusable. However, in this case, and one suspects elsewhere, a vivid surviving account from the time of the abbey's dissolution recounts how local people descended on the place and plundered everything of value. Like scavengers they stole everything, nailed down or not - tiles from the walls, paving stones from the floors and lead from the roofs. The human destruction of the abbey and its artefacts is an appalling account of wanton vandalism. Now emptied and abandoned the building deteriorated and became yet another neglected monastic ruin.
During the following 200 years Roche Abbey passed through a number of private hands with very little being achieved in the way of renovation. Eventually it became the possession of the 4 th Earl of Scarborough who, indirectly, was responsible for another bout of insensitive vandalism. In 1774, Lord Scarborough engaged Lancelot ‘Capability' Brown, the renowned landscape gardener, to redesign the grounds of his adjoining family seat at Sandbeck Park so as to incorporate his newly acquired abbey grounds. Unfortunately, such picturesque ruins were now regarded as a desirable acquisition by the landed gentry, a chic fashion item to be displayed with no understanding of their true worth or significance.
This was Brown's first attempt at the ‘Gothik' style and with scant regard to the archaeological importance of Roche Abbey, he extensively demolished any buildings that failed to fit into his scheme of the picturesque Gothik ideal. More wanton vandalism on an enormous scale was perpetrated. What remained of the church was brought down, some of the stone was employed to ‘enhance' other parts of the ruin, while the cloister buildings in their entirety were flattened because they simply got in the way. ‘Capability' then turfed across the entire site burying everything low lying in order to construct huge stepped formal grass terraces. Only the two soaring transepts that we see today remained above the artificial ground level. Two solitary stone sentinels, their significance in the greater scheme of things obliterated, now merely ‘romantic' features to be gawped at. The irony of Brown's nickname will not be lost on today's visitors.
Not until the 1920's was the full extent of the abbey remains reclaimed, when a systematic programme of excavation was undertaken. What remains to us is still a very picturesque piece of abbey ruin, now seen in context with an extensive layout of foundation walls indicating the ground plan, all set in beautifully landscaped surroundings with many mature trees in evidence.