York Guides

Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire is a Cistercian monastery first founded A.D. 1132. The Abbey was in operation until the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, ordered by Henry VIII, after which the Abbey buildings and over 500 acres of land were sold, October 1, 1540, by the Crown to Sir Richard Gresham, the London merchant, father of the founder of the Royal Exchange.