The west end of Byland Abbey, North Yorkshire. The Abbey was dissolved in 1539 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
—Stephen—
Stephen G Hipperson
My photography and other stuff
The west end of Byland Abbey, North Yorkshire. The Abbey was dissolved in 1539 as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
—Stephen—
Stephen G Hipperson 
I looked it up, yesterday, after your canine distraction. 🙂
I wonder if much of the stone was used … ahh … elsewhere, as in Italy …?
Yes. Where it might have gone is not easy to say, but as you can guess worked stone is a valuable commodity. There are various parish churches that have benefited, no doubt – with rumours that so and so window came from there or an arcade to a aisle came from somewhere else. Landed gentry will have used it for their houses too.
When you think about it, with all that church ruination that’s occurred over the centuries, there’s an awful lot of it gone somewhere else !
I suspect it’s only the facing stone that has gone to ‘good use’ – the walls would have been two layers of facing stone filled with ‘concreted’ rubble.
You’d know about that with your interest in it. I’ve always imagined walls five feet thick !
I don’t think it’s an unfair assumption on your part, I made the same one. It seems that the majority of our stone buildings are built like that – a very modern idea from my point of view.
I believe I understand why you say that !
Ah, Byland….one I’ve never been to. Is there much to see?
I guess it depends on what your main interest is. The ground plan is quite clear. There are some tiled floors but these were covered with tarps when we went.
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/byland-abbey/history/description/