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Fountains Abbey: History
Fountains Abbey: Buildings
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Mills (23/33)
The Cistercian Order prohibited its abbeys from receiving revenues from mills, since this ran counter to the ideal that monks should live by the sweat of their own brows and not that of others. Whilst communities could have mills for their own use, they were not to profit from these by collecting ‘multure’, which was the tax demanded from those who were obliged to grind the corn at the mill. This prohibition was not always observed and was at times difficult to uphold, for example, if the community received a grant of land from a donor that included mills. Most monastic mills were powered by water and used to grind grain. Others, such as Fountains’ mill at Warsill grange, were driven by horsepower. In the sixteenth century the tenant of Warsill was obliged to provide the horse to drive the mill here.(105) From the late twelfth century, windmills were built. These were cheaper to construct, but more expensive to maintain. Furthermore, wind was a rather unpredictable power supply. Fountains is known to have had a windmill at Boston in 1360.(106) |
