York Guides

When work was resumed about the middle of the century, the nave was completed to its full length of eleven bays without any alteration in design, but increases in the numbers of the brethren forced a decision to remodel the claustral buildings on a much ampler scale. In this rebuilding the features now regarded as characteristic of the Cistercian plan were adopted, with the day-stairs transferred to the south range and the refectory set at right angles to the cloister. Simultaneously, the primitive Cistercian starkness in elevation and detail was abandoned and, as the chronicle puts it, the design of the new buildings was 'far more festive', including rich mouldings and simple forms of carved foliage.

The work went on gradually for half a century, but it can be divided into two main phases. The first probably lasted throughout the time of Abbot Richard III and Abbot Pipewell (1150-80) and saw the rebuilding of the sacristy, chapter house and parlour, the remodelling and lengthening of the dormitory and its undercroft, and the building of a new reredorter farther south than the old one. The northern part of the west range was also rebuilt to a much larger scale, and the lay-brothers' reredorter was added far to the south on the river bank with the intention that the range would eventually be extended to link tip with it. To the west, the twin guest houses were also erected.

The second phase occupied the time of Abbot Newminster and Abbot Hagct (1180-1203). The west range was extended south to the river, the whole of the south range including kitchen, refectory, warming house and day-stairs was rebuilt, and the lay-brothers' infirmary was added west of their reredorter. In this work the dark, fossiliferous limestone known as Nidderdale 'marble' first began to be used on a small scale, giving contrast to the pale freestone, similar to that provided by Purbeck marble in the south of England.