|
|
You are here:
Kirkstall Abbey: Lands
(1/15)
The Cistercians sought to live simply by the
fruits of their own labour and each abbey required a variety of
possessions, such as arable and pastoral lands, woodland, mills,
fisheries and mineral rights, to sustain a self-sufficient community.
Every Cistercian abbey was endowed upon its foundation with the
resources necessary to establish monastic life. Thereafter, the
monks acquired additional lands and rights to support the growth
of the community and perhaps also the foundation of a daughter-house.
Kirkstall Abbey acquired most of its lands during the twelfth and
early thirteenth centuries, following the community’s relocation
from Barnoldswick to Kirkstall in 1152. The monks’ possessions
stretched from Clitheroe in the west to Bessacar and Cantley in
the south east. Most of their holdings were concentrated in the
immediate vicinity of the abbey, namely in and around Leeds. However,
it was not until the later Middle Ages that the community obtained
any significant holdings in the township of Leeds. The
Coucher Book of Kirkstall, a compilation of the abbey’s
holdings that was begun c. 1210, provides extensive information
about the
location and nature of the abbey’s holdings. The Coucher
Book is not a complete record of Kirkstall’s possessions,
but contains almost four hundred documents and shows that by the
early thirteenth century the community had received about 138 grants,
almost all of which were gifts of land.(1)
In this section you can read more about how
the community acquired
and consolidated its holdings, and where these were located;
the various kinds of lands and rights that they held, namely, arable
and pastoral lands, woodland, mills,
fisheries and mineral rights.
<next> |
.jpg)