Cleeve Abbey, Remains Of Cistercian Abbey Of St Mary Covering About 28 Acres

The remains of Cleeve Abbey, a Cistercian abbey of St Mary, stand within approximately 28 acres. Founded in 1198, the abbey underwent remodelling in the 15th and early 16th centuries. It was dissolved in 1537, at which time the church was demolished, with the exception of the South transept and a section of the South aisle wall, which was incorporated into a farmhouse. Further alterations occurred in the early 17th century. Farm buildings to the southwest were remodelled in the 18th century. The abbey was excavated and restored in 1875-6 and placed under Department of the Environment guardianship in 1951.

The abbey is constructed of red sandstone rubble with slate roofs. The layout includes a gatehouse, remnants of walls defining the inner and outer courts, the foundations of a cloister, the remains of the church and South aisle wall with a collaction seat on the North side, the East range including a dorter over the chapterhouse, a sacristy, a library, a common room in the angle with the South range, and a frater above individual cells which features a heraldic tiled pavement from an earlier trater projecting from the southwest corner. Later farm buildings now serve as a ticket office and administration building projecting to the southeast, along with remains of the West cloister alley.

The gatehouse is gabled with two storeys and one bay, dating to the 13th century, altered in the 14th, and with an upper storey rebuilt in the early 16th century. It features a chamfered pointed arch opening, stepped buttresses, a large 20th-century raking buttress on the North front, and a 4-light mullioned window on the first floor. The North face displays a relief of the Virgin and Child, and the South face has a crucifixion flanked by empty cusped, headed niches, all from the early 16th century. It is topped with an arch-braced roof featuring three tiers of curved wind braces and a moulded wall plate.

The dorter range, dating to the 13th century and altered in the 15th, is two storeys high with ten bays, and includes lancet windows on the first floor. Ground floor openings include a central right entrance to the chapterhouse, with a quadripartite vault in two bays, ribs springing from moulded corbels with short shafts. Remains of 13th-century painted decoration are visible here and in the barrel-vaulted sacristy to the North. A day stair leads to the common room on the right and the dorter on the left.

The frater, dating to the 13th century and altered in the 15th, is two storeys high. On the first floor, five 3-light mullioned and transomed windows with flattened cusped ogee heads are positioned to the left. On the ground floor, a stone stair is located to the right, and another opening leads to an individual study chamber. The interior features a splendid, five-bay arch-braced roof, divided by subsidiary arch bracing, richly moulded with half and three-quarter length crowned angels forming sole-pieces to the overhanging arch braces, carried on moulded brackets and stone corbels. This roof was originally intended to be completed as a wagon roof but was left unfinished. To the right of the stairs is a chamber displaying extensive remains of 15th-century painted decoration and a gallery with a molded rail. The cloister alley, dating to the late 13th century and altered in the 16th, has six bays remaining and is unroofed.

Cleeve Abbey is a relatively small example by medieval standards, notable for the survival of monastic buildings including the splendidly roofed frater, the exceptional survival of a monastic dormitory and dorter, 13th and 15th-century painted decoration, and a 13th-century heraldic tiled floor. It is also a Scheduled Ancient Monument (Somerset County No. 31).