Each Cistercian abbey developed a network of
granges to provide for the self-sufficiency of the house. A home
grange beside the monastery directly served the community. Early
legislation stipulated that these should be within a day's walk
from the abbey, so that the lay-brothers
who staffed the granges could return to their abbey on Sundays and
feast days, to participate in the full liturgical day. It was not
always practical or possible to adhere to this ruling, and granges
were frequently situated further afield. Fountains' grange at Cowton,
in the North York Moors, lay some twenty miles north of the abbey.
By the early fourteenth century Fountains
had established thirty-nine granges, and the abbey itself was circled
by a series of granges, three of which could be accessed directly
from the outer court of the abbey precinct - Morker, which stood
to the south of the precinct, Haddockstones, to the south west,
and Swanley, which lay to the north of the monastery and now houses
an education resource centre.
Fountains' home granges provided for the community's immediate needs,
supplying the kitchener with grains, meats, dairy produce and poultry.
Surviving leases and documentation from the annual audits provide
evidence of the kind of livestock kept and of crops grown, and the
quantity of dairy produce manufactured. At Morker, for example,
there were in the late fifteenth century one or two bulls, about
forty cows, six heifers, six stirks
and five teams of oxen. A shepherd managed nine rams and about three
or even four hundred sheep.(3) Wheat,
oats and hay were grown here for the community's use.(4)
Grain from Haddockstones was delivered to the abbey granary, and
butter and cheese to the cheese-house.(5) The
kitchener of Fountains received pigs, capons, chickens and geese
from here; at the time of the Dissolution, if not before,
there was a dovecote at Haddockstones.(6) The
community's extensive supply of fish came
in part from fish ponds at Haddockstones, which were arranged in
four groups around
a square enclosure. Remains are visible today at Park House.(7)
[Read more about Cistercian fisheries
at Fountains and Byland]
