Name: FURNESS Location: nr Barrow-in-Furness
County: Cumbria Foundation: 1124 Mother house: Savigny Relocation: 1127 Founder: King Stephen Dissolution: April 1537 Prominent members: Access: English Heritage – open to the public
Furness abbey was first founded in 1124 by Stephen,
then count of Mortain and lord of Lancaster, and later
king of England (1135-54). The original site was at Tulketh near
Preston in Lancashire. Three years later the house was moved to
a more suitable site on the Furness peninsula. Furness was part
of the Savigniac congregation
and therefore objected strongly to the union of Savigny and
Citeaux. However their protests
were to no avail and Furness was absorbed
into the Cistercian Order in 1147 along with all the other Savigniac
houses. The abbey, under the special protection of the Crown, developed
rapidly and soon became almost as powerful as Fountains.
For years
the abbey remained the only religious house north of the Mersey
and west of the Pennine Chain.(1) The
abbey’s endowments
were considerable; it owned lands as far away as Ireland and Yorkshire,
and throughout the Middle Ages Furness and Fountains were frequently
to dispute landholdings in Cumbria.(2) The
rights and privileges of
Furness Abbey were confirmed and extended by every king from Henry
I to Henry IV, and in 1134 King Olaf of the Isle of Man, granted
Furness land for the foundation of a daughter-house and
the right to elect the bishop of the Isle of Man.(3) The
abbey of Furness achieved
some feudal independence over its lands in the north of England
and the abbot’s relations with Scotland were much like those
of a border baron; only the King of England could stand in the
way
of Furness’s sphere of influence.(4) The
abbot was also an important person at the king’s court. When
the king came north the abbot collected subsidies, assisted the
royal officers and judges
and
acted as arbitrator.(5) Furness'
proximity to the Scottish border meant that the abbey was embroiled
in the conflict between Scotland and England during the reign
of King Stephen (1135-54). Like so many other northern monasteries
the house inevitably suffered from raids at the hands of the
Scots.
The ascendancy that the abbey achieved over
its lands in the north meant that the abbot often became involved
in
local disputes. For example, in 1357 Thomas of Bordsey seized the
bailiff whilst he was on his duties and beat him. Following the
attack, the bailiff went with a company, including Abbot Alexander,
to avenge the insult. Thomas was duly captured and taken to
jail.(6) By Henry
VII’s reign it appears that the abbot of Furness had take
over the whole
process of legal activity in the area. The abbey
was not only important in the north, it also sent out colonies
across England and Ireland: Calder in
1135 (which moved
to Byland), Swineshead in
1135, and Wyresdale c. 1196 (which
moved to Abington in Limerick, c.1205).
Furness
was very wealthy: in the survey of 1535 the net annual
income was valued at £805
which made it the second richest Cistercian house in England,
after Fountains.(7) As such it
should not have been dissolved until 1538/9 when the larger monasteries
were forced to surrender. However,
the involvement of some of its monks in the uprising known as in
the Pilgrimage
of Grace during
the winter of 1536-7, and the fact that Furness had openly questioned
Henry VIII's declaration of supremacy over the church, led to its
closure in 1537. When Robert Radcliffe, a close friend of the
king, entered Lancashire to quell the disturbances of 1536-7, his
progress
was marked by a series of executions. He suggested that Furness
surrender as a ‘voluntary discharge of conscience’;
the abbot followed his advice and this hastened the abbey’s
end.(8) The
house was dissolved in 1537 and demolition began almost immediately.
The
property remained in private hands until 1923 when Lord Richard
Cavendish placed the abbey in the hands of the Office of Works
and
it is now cared for by the English Trust. When the buildings were
complete it is thought that they must have been among the finest
series of claustral ranges in England. Today, the remaining buildings
include the monk’s reredorter block, the guest-house,
the abbot’s
lodgings and the monks' infirmary. Of particular interest
is the sediliain
the choir, which was skilfully carved and consists of four
seats for the officiants and the double piscina required
for
the Mass.(9) The refectory and
the lay- brothers’ building, on the other hand, are marked
only by
their foundations. The infirmary
demonstrates the wealth of Furness better than any of the existing
ruins and is now used as a museum. The visitor centre contains
a
number of grave slabs and effigies removed from the site in the
nineteenth century.(10)
