The Yorkshire Cistercians were renowned for sheep-farming, an association
that remains strong today. Byland, in particular, made a significant
contribution to sheep rearing and the export of wool. The community
had over 400 sheep at Skirpenbeck, north of Stamford Bridge,
and common pasture at Kilburn for 600 sheep and their lambs,
until they were separated from their mothers.(49) The
abbey’s
moorland granges were especially important for sheep-farming.
Byland’s woolhouse at Thorpe Grange, south of Ampleforth,
was ideally located in the Coxwold / Gilling Gap. Most of the
abbey’s wool was brought here where it was viewed by Italian
and Flemish merchants, who placed their bids. It was then transported
by packhorse to Byland’s property at Clifton, just outside
York, on the River Ouse.(50) Byland’s
woolhouse at Thorpe, now known as Thorpe-Le-Willows, was also
used by the nuns of
Arden, whose priory lay about ten miles from the woolhouse. Most
of the nuns’ wool was also transported to Byland’s
house at Clifton where it could then be shipped to the Continent.
The Byland community kept
and reared a wide range of animals, and the monks established the
first known vaccary in 1140, when the
community was still part of the Saviginiac
Congregation. This was
at Cam.(51) The Nidderdale region,
which was dominated by Byland and Fountains, was especially important
for cattle farming. Both communities
had acquired significant holdings here from Roger
de Mowbray.(52) Oxen
were needed to plough the fields, and there were seventy-seven
at Byland’s grange at Wildon.
A cattle shed?
Aerial photography of the site of Byland’s former grange of Murton,
on the limestone crest of the Hambleton Hills, has revealed the outline
of what is thought to have been a cattle shed.
[Platt, The Monastic Grange, p. 221.]
Animals were not simply reared
and kept for the monks’ use, but might be offered as gifts
or as part-payment to donors. In 1237 Byland gave Henry III a dapple-grey
palfrey; Robert de Mowbray’s great-great grandson was persuaded
to relinquish his claims to land in Nidderdale upon receipt of
a sum of money and a horse. (53)
