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IMC 2009: Sessions

Session 1024: Organizing Space: Yorkshire Cistercians and their Domains

Wednesday 15 July 2009, 09.00-10.30

Organiser:Terryl N. Kinder, _Cîteaux: Commentarii cistercienses_, Pontigny
Moderator/Chair:Emilia Jamroziak, Forschungsstelle für Vergleichende Ordensgeschichte (FOVOG), Technische Universität Dresden / Institute for Medieval Studies / School of History, University of Leeds
Paper 1024-aPresident or Precedent: Cross-Referral in the Records of Fountains Abbey
(Language: English)
Mike Spence, Institute for Medieval Studies, University of Leeds
Index terms: Geography and Settlement Studies, Monasticism, Religious Life, Social History
Paper 1024-bThe Organisation and Development of the Estates of Fountains Abbey in the Vale of York
(Language: English)
Stephen Anthony Moorhouse, Independent Scholar, Batley
Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Geography and Settlement Studies, Local History, Monasticism
Paper 1024-cThe Cistercians and Westmorland: The Monks of Byland and the Grange Bleatarn
(Language: English)
Janet Burton, Department of History, University of Wales, Lampeter
Index terms: Archives and Sources, Geography and Settlement Studies, Local History, Monasticism
Abstract

Paper -a: Surviving records of Fountains include comparable sections of four cartularies, written between the late 13th and early 16th centuries. A further document, the President Book, records additional information about these cartulary entries, which are identified by a comprehensive cross-referencing system. Integrating the information from both sources suggests how Fountains would set about defending its landholdings from legal challenge.

Paper-b: Work over the past three decades has been attempting to reconstruct the physical appearance of Fountains Abbey's estates on the ground as well as in their development from cartularies, rentals and surveys. Apart from the physical appearance of the different parts of the estate and the detailed anatomy of it, this work has allowed the documents to be understood in a different light, and the pre- and post monastic administrative structure to be understood. The headings in the printed cartulary are mainly under grange names and not the townships from which they were formed. The detailed perambulations to land which created the grange estates has allowed boundaries to the township structure of pre-Domesday Book date to be reconstructed. The extent of grange estates at the Dissolution can be shown to form the basis of modern civil parish units. Markington, to the south east of the Abbey, is typical: it is made up from parts of the pre-12th century townships of Markenfield, Ingerthorpe, Wallerthwait, and Sawley. The paper will examine the results of this work.

Paper-c: This paper will deal with the acquisition and exploitation of the area to the west of the Pennines by the Yorkshire Cistercians, using as a case study Byland Abbey and its most important grange, Bleatarn. Close reference will also be made to the extensive section on Bleatarn in the Byland cartulary.