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Jervaulx Abbey - Nr Ripon, North Yorkshire
(Pvt)
Jervaulx was founded by the first Abbot, John de Kinstan in 1156 for the Cistercian
order. Manuscripts of the early 12th-century describe how while travelling from Byland Abbey in Ryedale, Yorkshire to another abbey at Fors, John de
Kinstan and twelve monks lost their way in thick woods and were guided to safety by the
vision of the Virgin Mary and Child, who said "Ye are late of Byland but now of
Yorevale". Taking this as a good omen they later returned from Fors to establish
their abbey on this site. The name derives from the nearby river Ure or Yore and was
altered to the more fashionable French spelling by a former Marchioness of Ailesbury.
Jervaulx is unusual in that it is still privately owned, although open to
the public. Most monastery land and buildings were given away or sold at the time of the
Dissolution and here at Jervaulx as elsewhere, stone was taken to help construct the
houses that were built over the succeeding years. What was once the Gatehouse of the Abbey
can be seen on the right-hand side of the entrance, now a private house and much altered,
but its stonework betrays its origins.
The Abbey was built according to the usual plan, with a large church,
facing east, a square cloister to the south and the Chapter House, where the business was
done after readings of the Chapters, and the Parlour, where the monks were allowed limited
conversation, leading off from the Cloisters to the east. There were many other buildings,
where the monks slept and ate, the kitchens, the abbots somewhat grander accommodation and
the lay brothers buildings. As you wander round, the sheer size of the site reveals what a
once thriving community there was here.
The church has suffered severely and little now remains but the ground
plan. There is a fine round-headed doorway on the south-west however, which has Norman
dog-tooth decoration. The Church was completed in the thirteenth century and had forty
supporting buttresses. Some floor tomb stones survive, together with a much weathered
stone effigy of a knight in armour, made in Durham. The figure is that of Henry Fitzhugh
who died in 1307 and was one of the abbey's benefactors. The wooden rood screen which once
separated the choir monks from the lay brothers was removed and is now in Aysgarth church
to the west of Jervaulx.
The Chapter House is reached by descending from the cloisters and five of
the original six columns supporting the vaulted roof remain to their full height. Again,
this is unusual and helps to provide a real feeling of the proportions and appearance of
this once important building within the abbey.
Jervaulx, because of its present ownership, has a rather different
atmosphere to the other abbeys and priories we have visited. It is a little overgrown,
without signs and has low walls consisting of piles of carved stonework from the abbey
ruins. It is extremely atmospheric because of this and has a charm of its own which some
more manicured sites do not.
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