A brace of pheasants

A handsome cock pheasant and his rather more subdued mate, two of many wandering the Fountains Abbey grounds. In one part of the estate there is a small bird hide and a feeding station. There were numerous birds flitting in and out for refreshment there; I saw blackbirds, robins, chaffinches, a variety of tits, several jackdaws and a magnificent Great spotted woodpecker, which I was just about to photograph when a rather exuberant small child rushed in to the hide, causing all the birds to flee!

The romance of ruins

A touch of sepia toning seems to suit the rather romantic ruins of Fountains Abbey, seen here from the south-eastern corner where the Abbot's House and the Infirmary were situated.

Evocative ruins

Fountains Abbey was a vast and important Cistercian monastery from 1132 until 1539, when it was abruptly closed by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Lay brothers, attached to the monastery, relieved the monks of the day to day work and allowed them to pursue a life of prayer. The estates belonging to the Abbey stretched far across the Yorkshire Dales and the Abbey became wealthy from farming, wool production, breeding horses and cattle, lead mining and stone quarrying.

The photo above shows the Abbey ruins approached from the bridge that led to the guesthouses, where visitors would be accommodated. Below is the Cellarium, an immense vaulted structure that was a storeroom, with the lay brothers' dormitory above.

When the monastery closed, the estate was sold to a merchant, Richard Gresham, and he and subsequent owners sold some of the fabric of the site and used the stone to build nearby Fountains Hall. Nevertheless, the remaining ruins are the largest monastic ruins in the UK. The surrounding estate is now parkland and formal gardens, dating back to Georgian times. The whole estate became a World Heritage Site in 1986.

Fountains Abbey

Last Friday, it was bright and sunny when I opened my bedroom curtains in the morning so I decided I'd drop my plans for the day and take off on an excursion. (The freedom to do that is still a joyous novelty!)

I headed for Fountains Abbey, a well-known National Trust beauty spot, about an hour and a half's drive north of here. It is so popular that it is fairly unbearable in the summer. There was the promise of snowdrops and fewer people about on a winter's day. I'd forgotten, however, that it was the half-term holidays for a lot of schools so it was busier than I anticipated.

I did enjoy my day but - does this ever happen to you? - I found myself quite underwhelmed when it came to taking photos. I just wasn't 'seeing' them and that left me frustrated. It was all incredibly muddy too, unpleasantly so, even on the paths and having to watch where you're walking is a distraction. Then the sun disappeared! So it wasn't the best day out but it still beat being in an office or stuck in the house.

There were snowdrops too, a welcome reminder that the seasons turn. Warmer, more colourful days will be here soon.

Pictures from the exhibition: The Cellarium

Another of the prints from my exhibition in the Half Moon Café in Saltaire's Roberts Park, on until the end of this month....

The stunning vaulted roof of the Cellarium at Fountains Abbey (North Yorkshire) survived amazingly intact after Henry VIII's brutal dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century. It was here that the lay brothers of the Abbey ate, slept and socialised.  Now it's home to several protected species of bat.  Patiently waiting to take a photograph without any people in it (difficult on a summer weekend), I had time to enjoy the serenity of this huge space.

Easter Day

Christ is risen!..... He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Wishing you all a very happy Easter, full of sunshine - within and without.

'Fan into flame the gift of God that is in you... for God did not give us a spirit of timidity, 

but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.'  2 Timothy 6-7

Surprise View

The aptly named 'Surprise View' - a lovely vista of the ruined Fountains Abbey, with the River Skell in the foreground that forms part of the Studley Royal water garden.  There is a high-level path through the woods around the estate, which leads to a Gothic pavilion called Anne Boleyn's Seat (though she never sat there, for sure!).  Coming out of the trees, the sudden view along the valley takes you completely by surprise and is as impressive and beautiful as it must have been when it was first conceived more than 200 years ago.

I will be posting some more photos of Fountains Abbey and the Studley Royal estate on my other blog, Seeking the Quiet Eye, starting here (three posts in all).

The Temple of Piety, Studley Royal

Celebrating International World Heritage Day today...  Part of the formal gardens of Studley Royal, which together with Fountains Abbey form another beautiful World Heritage Site in the heart of Yorkshire. 

The gardens were laid out in the early 18th century (Georgian) in the Studley Royal estate by John Aislabie, MP for Ripon, who had inherited the land in 1699 through his mother's family.  The 1720 'South Sea Bubble' financial disaster ruined his career and (after a period of imprisonment in the Tower of London) he retired to Yorkshire to devote himself to his garden. After his death in 1742, his son William further developed the estate by buying the adjacent ruins of Fountains Abbey and incorporating them into the design.  Thus, one end of the gardens is a very formal French-inspired water garden and the other a much more romantic and wild landscape.  Subsequent owners (luckily) neglected to overwrite the earlier designs and so the originally conceived ideas largely still survive.  There are several buildings, like the Temple of Piety, solely intended to form focal points in the design and to highlight particular views across the valley.

The Cellarium, Fountains Abbey

This is probably one the most famous images of Fountains Abbey and one of the most stunning parts of the ruins.  This long span of vaulting, incredibly, survived intact when the Abbey was dissolved and began to be plundered for its stone. It formed the roof of the Cellarium, the area where the monks ate, slept and socialised - though, when the monastery was in use, the area would have been partitioned and not the long, open space we see today.

The monastery was founded in 1132 and, soon after, was admitted to the Cistercian order, an austere and devout order that originated in France.  A large lay brotherhood, working alongside the monks, cared for the buildings and farmed sheep and soon the Abbey was wealthy and influential.  It seems, however, that the enterprise grew too large for its monastic roots and economic collapse in the 14th century saw the monastery decline and some of its lands sold off.  A brief period of revival was cut short in 1539 by King Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries (when he made himself the head of the Church of England and severed ties with the Roman Catholic Church).  In 1540 the estate was sold to Sir Richard Gresham and became the property of a succession of wealthy families, who built Fountains Hall and landscaped the gardens.

Fountains Abbey

When I pulled back the curtains last Saturday morning, I decided that to spend the day doing chores as I'd planned was criminally insane.  It was clearly going to be a splendid day - and it was... more like summer than spring. So I grabbed my camera and set off for Fountains Abbey, which is a very famous beauty spot north of Harrogate, about an hour's drive from here.  It also happens to be another World Heritage Site like Saltaire.  And since we are celebrating World Heritage Day on Monday 18th, it seems a good time to show you some of its beauty.

In actual fact the site is 'Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal' - a huge medieval monastery (reduced to ruins by Henry VIII's brutal dissolution of the abbeys in the 16th century) set within the beautiful valley of the River Skell, which was transformed in the 18th century into a stunning water garden and deer park by the Aislabie family who lived at Studley Royal, adjacent to the Abbey.

You could easily write a book about its history and the estate as it is today (and people have done!) so I won't try and cover everything here.  Please have a look at the website for more information and pictures - and enjoy my photos of this lovely spot.

This is my entry for 'Weekend Reflections' hosted by James at Newtown Area Photo - the gathering place for beautiful and creative interpretations of that theme from bloggers far and wide.  Do have a look at this week's other entries - click here.