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Kirkstall Abbey: history
Kirkstall Abbey: buildings
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Growth and consolidation: the acquisition of lands (2/2)
Shortly after the community had left the site at Barnoldswick, which was reduced to a grange (an agricultural centre managed by lay-brothers), the earl of Norfolk, Hugh Bigod, claimed and won for himself the land here, thus dispossessing the monks of their holdings. Fortunately, Abbot Alexander’s plea for mercy did not fall on deaf ears. Feeling some compassion for their plight, the earl conceded that the monks could take possession of the grange and its appurtenances if they agreed to hold them of him and his successors for an annual rent of five marks or a palfrey of the same price, and a hawk. At the king’s intervention it was decided that this payment should only be made during Earl Hugh’s lifetime.
Having consolidated the abbey’s holdings at Barnoldswick, Alexander sought to secure acquisitions elsewhere; he is credited with increasing the community’s herds, pastures and tenements; ‘by the favour of the Lord’ he attained property in a number of places.(8) In his foundation charter Henry de Lacy had appealed to his men (twenty-five of whom appear as witnesses) to support the new community at Kirkstall; his words were evidently heeded for a number of the abbey’s benefactions at this time were received from Henry’s tenants. |
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