Byland Abbey: History
• Sources
• Foundation
• Consolidation
• Later Middle Ages
• Dissolution

Byland Abbey: Buildings
• Precinct
• Church
• Cloister
• Sacristy
• Library
• Chapter House
• Parlour
• Dormitory
• Warming House
• Day Room
• Refectory
• Kitchen
• Lay Brothers' Range

A change of site and identity

An Anglo-Saxon sundial
Further evidence of a Saxon community at Old Byland is the survival of an unusual sundial that has been dated to c. 1065. It is no longer in its original place, but is a remarkable example of the decimal system of time.
[See J. Wall, ‘Anglo-Saxon sundials in Yorkshire’, Yorks. Arch. Journal 69, esp. pp. 105-106.]

The site at Old Byland was not entirely suited to monastic life. In the first instance it was populated, which meant that before the monks could settle here, they had to evict the locals, who were given their own church and green. The second difficulty with Old Byland was its proximity to the Cistercian abbey of Rievaulx, which lay just over a mile away. This led to complaints from the White Monks that the bells of their Savigniac neighbours were discordant with their own and the cause of confusion. Moreover – and perhaps more to the point – the arrival of the new community dashed any hopes Rievaulx may have had of expanding its holdings south of the River Rye. The departure of the Savigniac community seemed the only real solution and in 1147, after only four years at Old Byland, the monks were on the move once more. They relocated to wasteland at Stocking, in Kilburn, and left their lands at Old Byland to the monks of Rievaulx, enabling the Cistercians to divert the river and double the size of their precinct, in preparation for the next building campaign. The site at Old Byland later became a tilery, known as ‘Tile House Grange’.

The community remained at Stocking for thirty years, and built a small stone church, cloister, houses and offices. Stocking was never considered a final destination but rather a stable temporary location where the monks could celebrate the monastic life while the site at New Byland was prepared for occupation and the community developed its resources. Moreover, the water supply at Stocking was inadequate for permanent settlement.

1147 was certainly an eventful year for the monks of Byland. They not only relocated (from Old Byland to Stocking), but became members of the Cistercian family, for at the General Chapter of 1147 Savigny and her affiliations were absorbed within the Cistercian Order. This meant that the monks of Byland were now fully-fledged members of the Cistercian family and subject to the legislation authorised by the General Chapter at Cîteaux.