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A change in land-holding
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The ruins of Kirkstall Abbey partly masked
by trees and other vegetation as seen from the weir before the
programme of conservation in 1892-6.
© Abbey House Museum
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The thirteenth century marked a change
in the system of Cistercian land-holding in the country. Whereas
the Cistercian Order had,
from the outset, insisted upon the direct exploitation of abbey
lands, economic and social changes meant that from the late thirteenth
century, this was not necessarily viable. From c. 1288 to 1459
Kirkstall embarked upon the large-scale leasing and renting of
its lands. Whereas in 1288 Barnoldswick was the only one of the
abbey’s granges to be leased, by 1459 six more had been
leased and rents were collected from others.(14) This change
in policy would have increased the value of the abbey’s
lands. However, it was also influenced by the shortage of manpower,
for the demise
of the lay-brothers and
the loss of numbers as a consequence of the Black
Death meant that it was not always possible to work
the lands directly. Indeed, by 1381 there were only sixteen monks
and six lay-brothers.
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