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A change in land-holding

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The ruins of Kirkstall Abbey partly masked by trees and other vegetation as seen from the weir before the programme of conservation in 1892-6.
© Abbey House Museum
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The thirteenth century marked a change in the system of Cistercian land-holding in the country. Whereas the Cistercian Order had, from the outset, insisted upon the direct exploitation of abbey lands, economic and social changes meant that from the late thirteenth century, this was not necessarily viable. From c. 1288 to 1459 Kirkstall embarked upon the large-scale leasing and renting of its lands. Whereas in 1288 Barnoldswick was the only one of the abbey’s granges to be leased, by 1459 six more had been leased and rents were collected from others.(14) This change in policy would have increased the value of the abbey’s lands. However, it was also influenced by the shortage of manpower, for the demise of the lay-brothers and the loss of numbers as a consequence of the Black Death meant that it was not always possible to work the lands directly. Indeed, by 1381 there were only sixteen monks and six lay-brothers.

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