Strata Florida Abbey ruins

Strata Florida Abbey Ruins

These are the ruins of a Cistercian abbey church built to a cruciform plan with a square east end and three chapels on the east side of each transept. The layout, though broadly conventional for Cistercian houses, incorporated an unusual feature: the nave had aisles carried on screen walls standing 5 to 7 feet high. This design is not found elsewhere in England or Wales but does occur in Ireland.

The church appears to have had a crossing tower, suggested by a mural stair in the north transept, the purchase of a great bell in 1255, and the record of a fire starting in the belfry in 1284, which would have been positioned over the crossing. The presbytery was extended by one bay, possibly during the original construction or shortly after. In the 14th century, the floor was raised and paved with encaustic tiles. Further raising of the sanctuary probably occurred in the 15th century when the altar was moved forward and two small chapels were inserted against the east wall.

Extensive carved stone fragments discovered in 1887 confirm that the presbytery and transept chapels were vaulted with ribbed vaults. The presbytery vault ribs are distinguished by a double band of large roundels. Some carved fragments have been found reused in the parish church, Great Abbey Farmhouse, and Trawsgoed mansion. The capitals display transitional details, leaning more towards stiff-leaf than scallop forms, with decorative Celtic interlace. The nave arches were pointed; at the crossing, the eastern arch carried a round moulding while the other three had beaded square mouldings.

Three different forms of nave pier have been identified: a thick quatrefoil cluster with shafts in the clefts; a round pier with four attached shafts; and a cross with rebated angles and shafting at all corners. The crossing piers were square with half-round responds and rebated angle shafts, a form repeated in minor versions at the transept chapel piers.

Most surviving remains are low wall-bases with moulded details at the bases of crossing arches, transept chapel arches, and the west end of the arcades. The west door is a remarkable survival, showing stylistic separation from the mainstream Romanesque tradition. Five orders of shafts run continuously around the arch without capitals but are interrupted by ribbon-like bands terminating in scrolls—four across each upright and five radiating around the arch. The central band ends in a double scroll interlaced with leaves, and a scroll-ended hoodmould crowns the opening. To the right is a pointed lancet aisle window.

The 1887 excavation revealed that poor-quality lime mortar was used with local stone for the main construction. However, four types of dressed stone were imported: millstone grit (apparently reused from an earlier building, with reversed moulding visible in the main wall), Bath limestone for dressings and quoins, yellow Dundry stone, and purple Carbwdy stone from St Davids, which may have been used in arch banding.

Significant numbers of 14th-century encaustic tiles survive, paving the chancel and transept chapels. Some are simply impressed with decoration; others are overlaid with white slip. The patterns are predominantly geometrical, though the assemblage includes a figure of a man with a mirror in 14th-century dress, complete with long liripipes dangling from his sleeves, along with a dragon and a griffin. Fire damage is evident in many fragments.

Of the monastic buildings, a narrow sacristy survives integral with the south transept. The Chapter House beyond was originally large, measuring 54 feet by 27 feet, but was halved in size during the 14th century, indicating reduced status and possibly conversion to use as the Warming Room. The base of the 15th-century north cloister wall shows a five-bay range with five-light windows and a central reading alcove. The west range is almost entirely lost; it was probably occupied by lay brothers. The south range lies beneath the curtilage of Great Abbey Farmhouse.