Kirkstead Abbey

Daughter monasteries

Hovedøya ( 1147 )

Kirkstead Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in England. The monastery was around 1.5 km south of Woodhall Spa at Horncastle in Lincolnshire.

History

The abbey was founded in 1139 by Hugo Brito, the Earl of Tattershall, as a third daughter house of Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire from the filiation of Clairvaux Abbey Primary. The first two abbots were pulled from the Benedictine monastery of S. Mary's, York. Kirkstead Abbey founded himself in 1147, the daughter monastery Hovedøya at Oslo in Norway. 1187 Kirkstead Abbey was slightly moved to its later location. In the 14th century the monastery suffered heavy losses. In 1441, the abbot of Kirkstead was entrusted with the abbots of Furness Abbey, Byland Abbey, Sawley Abbey, Hailes Abbey and Abbey Morgan with the reform of the Cistercian monasteries in England. In 1534 the income of the monastery was estimated at 286 pounds. In the train of the English monastery repeal the abbey was dissolved in 1537 after the last abbot, Richard Harrison and three monks were executed. The monastery was covered and soon fell. The Duke of Suffolk, it was a fief.

Plant and buildings

From the plant is up to a small fragment of the abbey church, the southeast corner of the south transept of the 12th century, received nothing on a pasture. A path leads to a 1913/1914 restored Torkapelle (St. Leonard ) from the 13th century, the present parish church. The aerial archeology has indicated a couple more tracks of the monastery.