After the Norman Conquest two monastic orders headquartered in Burgundy established abbeys in Yorkshire: the Cluniacs (at Pontefract anf Monk Bretton) and the Cistercians (at Rievaulx, Roche, Fountains, Sawley, Kirkstall and Meaux). The Cistercians also owned Rotherham Minster, which was used to finance their college in Paris. In addition the first new Benedictine Abbey in the north was established in Selby by a monk from Auxerre - also in Burgundy. Peter's talk looks at the early history of these implantations and their impact upon thr Yorkshire economy.
Views: 182 | Enquiries: 0Since retiring in 2015 as a specialist in career change (job change and pre-retirement), Peter has volunteered as a guide at Fountains Abbey (which receives the fees for this talk). He has also presented a radio programme - a History of the World Special - based on his Uncle Bryn's 5 years in prisoner-of-war camps in Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland. The programme centred on a portrait in oils of Bryn's wife Peggy, which was painted, from a Red Cross postcard, by a Jewish prisoner during Bryn's 6 months in Auschwitz
Peter's talks reflect his interest in the history of Yorkshire, especially the devastation wreaked in the 12th Century during the Harrying of the North and the subsequent rebuilding, much of which was undertaken by the newly arrived monastic orders, especially the Cistercians whose abbeys (Riveaulx, Byland, Fountains, Jervaulx, Kirkstall, Sawley, Meaux and Roche), though magnificent ruins, are a reminder of their lasting influence on the Yorkshire landscape.
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