Internal life under Aelred (2)

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Cloister arcade at Rievaulx © Cistercians in Yorkshire Project
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Under the direction of Abbot Aelred, Rievaulx embarked on a massive building project. Work began c. 1150 with the church, the cornerstone of monastic life, and the aisled chapter-house, with its rather unusual apsidal east end. Thereafter a new three-storey eastern range was built, to accommodate the growing number of brethren; a refectory and large kitchen were constructed in the southern range, and a cloister garden was added.

It was also during this period that a large infirmary with its own cloister was built at Rievaulx; this impressive complex was one of the earliest Cistercian infirmaries in the country.(9) This intensive building programme meant that by Aelred’s death in 1167 the essential building work at Rievaulx was complete. Aelred was also responsible for increasing the abbey’s holdings and expanding Rievaulx’s circle of benefactors. Under his direction Rievaulx began the process of creating granges, that is agricultural centres from which the abbey could farm the land directly.(10) It is often difficult to determine when precisely these granges were established and where exactly they were located, but it seems that Rievaulx’s first grange was established at Hunmanby and the second at Crosby, c. 1152.

Whilst many granges were used for farming, some, such as Faweather grange in the West Riding of Yorkshire, were used for industrial work. Iron production was associated with Faweather.
[Burton, ‘The estates and economy’, p. 73.]

See a map of Rievaulx's granges

It was at this time that that the community acquired one of its most important sites, Pickering, and made a grange here completely from waste land.(11) Pickering was, in part, a grant from Henry II (1154-1188). In the twelfth century Rievaulx had around twelve granges but by the fourteenth century had established over twenty.