Details
EASBY EASBY
NZ 10 SE
4/39 Ruins of Abbey of St
Agatha
(formerly listed as Easby
4.2.69 Abbey Ruins)
GV I
Ruins of Premonstratensian Abbey of St Agatha. Late C12, early C13, c1300,
early C14, early C15. Sandstone. Church with cloister, sacristies, chapter
house, refectory, dorter, guests' solar and reredorter to south, and
infirmary and abbot's accommodation to north. Church: foundations only of
late C12 aisleless nave with many fine grave covers, with crosses, set in
floor; considerable height of early C14 north chapel, with complete stone
altar, added on to west side of late C12 north transept; late C12 aisleless
choir lengthened by addition of early C14 presbytery, largely surviving to
approximately 2 metres high, with 2 tomb recesses with double-chamfered
segmental-pointed arches on north side; 3-bay early C14 east wall of south
transept survives. 2 sacristies. Chapter house: 2-storey structure
survives from early C13 with bench-table, and with early C15 alterations
including hollow-moulded multi-light east window with almost flat segmental-
pointed arch with label, and above, and in adjoining buildings to south, 2-
light windows with cinquefoiled ogee-headed lights and hood-moulds.
Undercroft of early C13, formerly vaulted, below complete c1300 8-bay
refectory with 5-light east window and 6 south windows, all with remains of
Geometric tracery, and reader's pulpit in the second from easternmost bay.
In cloister, 1 bay survives of the lavatorium, with a trefoiled niche with
nailhead decoration. Next to it, an ex-situ doorway from cloister to
dorter, with a round arch of 2 orders with weathered beak-head ornament.
The west range is not of standard monastic plan due to the steep fall of the
land: early C13 groin-vaulted undercroft below dorter, and west of it an
early C13 undercroft below the guests' solar with a south window of 3
intersecting flat-pointed arches forming 4 lights with stiff-leaf capitals
and blind quatrefoils in the spandrels. West again, the early C13 3-storey
reredorter which served the guests' solar, dorter and also the prior's
apartment formerly west of the refectory. Its west wall has pilaster
buttresses, a rolled string, 2 lancet windows on the second floor and a
corbel table. The reredorter was flushed by the tail-race from the Abbey
Mill (qv). The infirmary, with abbot's apartment on first floor, survives
2-storeys high in places with some shouldered doorways and complete external
offset chimney-stack. Founded 1155. The canopied choir-stalls,
commissioned by Abbot John Bampton after 1515, are now in St Mary's Parish
Church, Richmond. The parclose screen is now in Wensley Church. Scheduled
as an Ancient Monument. A Hamilton Thompson, Easby Abbey (DOE Official
Handbook); VCH i, pp 53-59.
Listing NGR: NZ1850700307
