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Fountains Abbey: History
Fountains Abbey: Buildings
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Growth and expansion: the acquisition of lands and rights (3/33)
The Fountains community required extensive lands and rights if it was to be a self-sufficient unit. Pope Eugenius’s confirmation of the abbey’s lands in 1146 highlights the sheer speed with which Fountains acquired holdings in its immediate vicinity and the scale of this expansion. By the mid-twelfth century the community had interests nearby, for example, in Rainborough, New Hall and Trout Dale, but had also made inroads further afield, for instance, at Cowton, some twenty miles away in the North York Moors. Pope Eugenius’ confirmation also shows that Fountains had by this time firmly established the grange system of farming, and had created six of these agricultural centres from which the community could directly exploit the land. These were at Sutton, Warsill, Cayton, Dacre, Aldburgh and Cowton. All but Cowton lay within ten miles of the abbey.(7) By the end of the twelfth century Fountains had established a staggering thirty-two granges, and by the early thirteenth century had created another seven; twenty-eight of these remained in the abbey’s hands until the Dissolution.(8) [Read more about Fountains and the grange system of farming] |
