The layout of the granges

Remants of Earth works at Ninevah Farm which stands on the site of Fountains grange
© Cistercians in Yorkshire
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There are few surviving remains of granges, but earthworks, such as those at Fountains' granges at Morker and Sutton, offer some idea of their layout and size. Ninevah Farm now occupies the site of Fountains' former grange of Morker, which stood to the south of the abbey precinct. Morker was one of the first of Fountains' estates to be formed and one of the first to be created into a grange. It functioned as a home farm, directly serving the community until the Dissolution.

The earthworks at Morker suggest that the layout of the complex here was fairly typical. A large rectangular enclosure was surrounded by a boundary wall, and a gate would have provided access to the outer court of the abbey. Remains of the west boundary wall at Morker can still be seen.(18) Grange complexes might also be enclosed by a moat or ditch, and were entered by a gateway. The gatehouse range at Fountains grange at Kilnsey survives.

The layout of the complex at Morker

The grange complex at Morker consisted of a large outer court, where most of the work was carried out. An inner enclosure to the south west of the court housed domestic buildings, which were to some extent sheltered from the hustle and bustle of the outer court. At Fountains' grange at Kirkby Wiske the inner court stood to the north-east of the enclosure. The domestic buildings at Morker were probably similar to those listed in a late fourteenth-century inventory of Fountains' grange at Aldburgh. This is one of the earliest lists of domestic buildings on a grange and mentions a dwelling house, a fulling mill, stables and a cottage ('colhouse'), a 'kynhouse', 'smythshouse', 'kylnhouse', 'waynmanhouse' and 'cowshouse.'(19) From surviving leases and documents compiled at the dissolution of the abbey, it is known that there were orchards and gardens at Morker, that wheat, oats and hay were grown here and that pigs, capons and chicken from the grange were sent to the abbey kitchener.(20) Some granges that were regularly visited by the monastic community had their own chapels, for example, Bewerley, Brimham, Kilnsey and Bouthwaite; there was an oratory at Kirkby Wiske in the twelfth century.(21) Malham grange in Craven, had its own piped water supply.(22)