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The grange system of farming with a focus on Fountains
Granges were agricultural centres from which the monks exploited their landscape and co-ordinated farming and industrial work.(2) Just as the castle was the key to the conquest and colonisation of England following the Normans' victory at Hastings in 1066, so the grange was fundamental to the Cistercians' successful expansion and management of the land. The granges supplied the monastery's food, clothing, utensils and building materials, and were thus essential to the self-sufficiency of the community. The granges were manned by lay-brothers, who cultivated the lands and reared livestock, but in the later Middle Ages they were generally leased to lay tenants or farmed by keepers. There are few surviving granges but earthworks are visible on a number of former sites. Many of these sites are now occupied by modern farms, which make use of the medieval grange layout and design. For example, Ninevah farm in North Yorkshire stands on the Fountains' former grange of Morker.
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