The twelfth century was effectively the heyday of
Fountains’ economy, with the community developing the grange system
of farming and extending its holdings throughout Yorkshire, Cumberland,
Lancashire and Lincolnshire. By the second half of the thirteenth
century, Fountains had established the pattern of its estates.
Fountains had many
possessions in the northern hinterlands, but had interests in about
a hundred other towns and vills. These included upland areas for
grazing, dales for agriculture, marginal lands that could be brought
into
cultivation,
and rights to make fisheries, extract minerals and dig peat.(10)
[ Read more about arable and pastoral farming, woodland, fisheries and mineral rights]
In the late twelfth century
Roger de Mowbray granted the monks twenty cartloads of hay at Kirkby
Malzeard. Whenever they wished to claim the hay, they were to ask Roger’s
bailiff to show them where they ought to take this.
[Wardrop, Fountains Abbey and its Benefactors, p. 102.]
The speed with which Fountains acquired its
holdings in the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries is a testimony
to the height of the abbey’s
reputation at this time. Men and women from all walks of life were
clearly drawn to the Skelldale community, choosing these Cistercians
as the worthy
recipients of their patronage.
[Read more about the motives of patrons and benefactors]
Fountains’ remarkable
expansion is also a reflection of the astuteness and energy of
its abbots, who actively sought to expand the community’s
possessions, to establish granges and to create compact estates.(11)
[Read more about Fountains’ role in expanding
its holdings and
creating compact estates]