Ruins Of Abbey Of St Agatha

The ruins of the Premonstratensian Abbey of St Agatha date from the late 12th century, with subsequent building phases in the early 13th century, around 1300, the early 14th century, and the early 15th century. Constructed of sandstone, the abbey comprised a church with a cloister, sacristies, a chapter house, a refectory, a dorter, a guests' solar, a reredorter to the south, and an infirmary and abbot's accommodation to the north.

The church remains largely in the form of foundations, including those of a late 12th-century aisleless nave with many fine grave covers bearing crosses set into the floor. A significant portion of an early 14th-century north chapel survives, including a complete stone altar that was added to the west side of the late 12th-century north transept. The late 12th-century aisleless choir was lengthened by the addition of an early 14th-century presbytery, which survives to approximately 2 metres in height. This presbytery includes two tomb recesses with double-chamfered segmental-pointed arches on the north side. The early 14th-century east wall of the south transept also remains.

Two sacristies are visible within the ruins. The chapter house is a two-storey structure from the early 13th century, incorporating a bench-table and early 15th-century alterations. These include a hollow-moulded multi-light east window with an almost flat segmental-pointed arch and label, and two two-light windows with cinquefoiled ogee-headed lights and hood-moulds in the upper levels, along with similar windows within adjoining buildings to the south.

An early 13th-century undercroft, originally vaulted, underlies the complete refectory from around 1300, which has an 8-bay layout, a 5-light east window, six south windows, and remains of Geometric tracery. A reader's pulpit is located in the second bay from the east. One bay of the cloister's lavatorium survives, showcasing a trefoiled niche with nailhead decoration. An ex-situ doorway from the cloister to the dorter features a round arch of two orders with weathered beak-head ornament.

The west range’s layout deviates from typical monastic plans due to the steepness of the land. An early 13th-century groin-vaulted undercroft lies beneath the dorter, and west of that, another early 13th-century undercroft is situated below the guests' solar, featuring a south window composed of three intersecting flat-pointed arches forming four lights with stiff-leaf capitals and blind quatrefoils in the spandrels. Further west is the early 13th-century three-storey reredorter, which served the guests’ solar, dorter, and a former prior’s apartment. The reredorter's west wall includes pilaster buttresses, a rolled string, two lancet windows on the second floor, and a corbel table. This structure was flushed by the tail-race from the nearby Abbey Mill. The infirmary, with an abbot’s apartment on the first floor, stands two storeys high in places, with some shouldered doorways and a complete external offset chimney-stack.

The abbey was founded in 1155. Notable features, including the canopied choir stalls commissioned by Abbot John Bampton after 1515, now reside in St Mary’s Parish Church, Richmond. The parclose screen is now located in Wensley Church. The site is designated as an Ancient Monument.