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Surviving fabric and excavations
(3/3)
Kirkstall is the most complete set of Cistercian
ruins in the country, and survived the wholesale plunder experienced
by other abbeys, perhaps, as the stone was of less interest to the
locals than was use of the buildings as barns. Some of the buildings
collapsed in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the result
of neglect and decay, but as the ruined abbey was one of the most
painted at this time, we now have a record of how the site looked
before these losses. There have also been extensive excavations
of the site, primarily in the 1950s and 1980s. This work has not
only contributed to our understanding of the design of the precinct
and the buildings therein, such as the guest-house and corn-mill,
but uncovered interesting artefacts including pottery, tools, tiles
and a chess-piece (see below.) A number of Kirkstalls seals
survive.
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