Fountains Abbey, With Ancillary Buildings

Fountains Abbey, with Ancillary Buildings

Fountains Abbey is an abbey church with precinct buildings, river walling and two bridges. It was founded in 1132 by monks of the Cistercian Order, with main building phases from 1170 to 1247 and again from the late 15th to early 16th century. The buildings are constructed in freestone, with areas of dark fossiliferous limestone known as Nidderdale marble, and magnesian limestone.

The Abbey Church comprises a west Galilee Chapel, a nave with north and south aisles, a choir, transepts, a north tower, a presbytery and the Chapel of the Nine Altars to the east. The cloister, positioned south of the nave, features on its east side a Chapter House with a monks' dormitory on the first floor. The west side contains a storehouse and lay brothers' refectory with their dormitory above. The south side houses the monks' refectory, flanked by a warming house and kitchen. To the south-east of the cloister stand the Abbot's house and the monks' infirmary with its service buildings. To the south-west lie the lay brothers' reredorter and infirmary. Both infirmaries stand over tunnels carrying the canalised River Skell. An infirmary bridge crosses the river between the lay brothers' infirmary and the East and West Guest-houses. A mill bridge further upstream links the outer court with the Abbey Mill.

The buildings are built in Romanesque and Early English style. Fountains Abbey is the best-preserved of English abbeys and represents the finest picturesque ruin in the country. Among its architectural splendours are the deeply-recessed, elaborately-moulded, round-arched west door to the church and other late 12th-century doorways. Trefoil-headed recesses, now without attached columns, line the nave and the Chapel of the Nine Altars. Bishop Huby's Tower, built in 1526, rises to 55 metres in five stages with a deeply-moulded plinth, massive angle buttresses, windows with varied heads, an embattled parapet and decoration comprising inscriptions and statues in niches. The Chapter House features three elaborately-moulded arches and was one of the largest in the country. The central line of piers in the west cloister range, from which ribs spring without capitals, comprises 22 double bays and represents the largest building of its kind in Europe. The two warming house fireplaces feature flat joggled arches. The guest houses each contain two floors of hall, chamber and privy, with early circular chimney stacks. A late 12th-century bridge with three ribbed arches and triangular cutwaters survives as another rare example.

Fountains Abbey developed as one of the most powerful religious houses in Yorkshire and the richest of its order in England. In November 1539 it surrendered to the King. In 1597 it passed to Stephen Proctor, who built Fountains Hall around 1611, probably using stone from the monks' infirmary for the purpose. The ruins subsequently passed through several hands until 1768, when they were sold to William Aislabie of Studley Royal. This union brought together the most ambitious garden scheme in the north of England with the most decorative of ruins. William Aislabie was responsible for 'tidying' the east end of the church and building structures among the ruins, including a viewing platform in the east window. Ownership has since passed through the West Riding and North Yorkshire County Councils to the National Trust. The ruins are a Scheduled Ancient Monument.