York Guides

In the summer of 1132 the Benedictine abbey of St. Mary at York was half a century old. Wealthy and powerful, its reputation stood high, but its monks had settled down to an easy way of life, adopting the relaxations of diet and dress that were common to most of the older houses of black monks. To a small section of the convent this savoured of backsliding, and six of them, guided by Richard the sacrist of the abbey, began to discuss together their common desire for a life of greater austerity. The sacrist was a man to inspire others but not to lead them, so they sought the advice of their prior, another and very different Richard, practical, wise, and a friend of Archbishop Thurstan of York. They found that the prior shared their views and was prepared to put their case to the abbot.

From the church he led them to his palace where they stayed through October and November, until he took them with him to celebrate Christmas at his collegiate church of Ripon. Two days later, on 27th December 1132, he led them from Ripon to some waste land three miles to the west in the narrow valley of the little River Skell and there he presided over their establishment as a new and independent convent and over the election of Prior Richard as their first abbot. There were springs of good water in the rocky sides of the valley, and from these they chose to call their new abbey 'Fountains'.

Abbot Richard and his convent now belonged to no recognized Order of monks and, in the depth of winter, possessed only the clothes on their backs, a store of bread given by the archbishop, and the uncultivated land on which they stood. It was a place 'uninhabited for all the centuries back, thick set with thorns, and lit rather to be the lair of wild beasts than the home of human beings'. But the little convent lacked nothing in zeal and resolution; no less than eight of its thirteen members were eventually to become abbots, and one was to become a saint. The bitter winter was spent sheltering first under the rocks and then under a great elm whilst they built a hut and a chapel and cleared land for a garden.

When the winter was over they decided to seek adoption by the Cistercian Order, newly planted in the north at Rievaulx in 1131, for the life advocated by it and by the Order of Savigny had influenced them deeply when they were still at York. Their petition was accepted, their abbey was received as a daughter-house by Clairvaux in Burgundy, and Geoffrey d'Ainai, an experienced monk of Clairvaux, returned with their messengers to Fountains to teach the new convent the Cistercian way of life.

Nevertheless the new foundation attracted no outside support and, as the archbishop's endowment was insufficient, the monks came near to starvation on more than one occasion during their first years in Skelldale, at one time being reduced to living on gruel made from elm leaves. By 1135 the position was so desperate that Abbot Richard crossed to Clairvaux to ask permission for the convent to leave England. St. Bernard, abbot of Clairvaux, agreed and set aside his abbey's grange of Longue as a home for them. This proved unnecessary in the event, for when Richard returned to Fountains he found that Hugh, dean of York, had retired to end his days at the abbey, bringing with him his library and considerable wealth. His example was followed by Serlo and Tosti, canons of York, and Fountains at last had a reasonable financial provision.