York Guides

When Abbot Haget died in 1203 there had been a continuous flow of benefactions to Fountains for some sixty-five years and, although this was to continue into the thirteenth century, the broad pattern of the abbey's estates was already settled. It was a pattern that owed much to chance, for individual gifts saw to it that the convent held scattered parcels of land in many places, and there were few vills within a radius of ten miles of Ripon that did not contain abbey properly. But the early Cistercians were expert agricultural pioneers, and their aim was to consolidate and regularise individual estates to a degree which would enable them to practise high farming.

This policy of centralised farming making use of direct monastic labour cut across the traditional agricultural economy of the countryside, and in their single mindedness the early Cistercians did not shrink from evicting the existing population of an estate if it seemed that the land could be better exploited by being 'reduced to a grange'. It was a policy that bred hard feelings and unpopularity, and Fountains is known to have depopulated the hamlets of Cayton, Sleningford, and Thorpe Underwoods in order to create granges.

The seven abbots who followed Abbot Haget and between them ruled from 1203 to 1265 were largely responsible for completing the work of consolidation that had been started in the second half of the twelfth century. It involved soliciting new grants, arranging exchanging of land, and purchasing plots to round off existing holdings. As other monasteries were engaged in the same activities it also involved negotiating agreements to establish what would today be called 'spheres of influence' in which each monastery could increase its holdings without fear of conflict. Fountains entered into more than twenty such agreements with fifteen different religious houses, mostly from the time of Abbot Pipewell to that of Abbot Alexander (1170-1265).

The pattern that emerged from this was an impressive one. There were a few isolated granges far from the abbey; Bradley near Huddersfield, an estate of 4400 acres, was one, and Aleerdale in Cumberland another, and for these wayleaves had to be secured to enable stock to be moved back to the abbey. But in general the more distant granges were linked to the mother-house by others at intervals of about ten miles to act as staging-posts. In this way Baldersby served as a stepping stone to Kirby Wiske, which gave access northwards to Cowton. out in the Vale of Mowbray, and north-eastwards by way of Busby to Eston in Cleveland and the coast. Similarly, Marton and Thorpe Underwoods were stages on the way to Hammerton, Marston, and York, and so to the important grange of Wheldrake on the Dcrwent.

But the main landed strength of Fountains lay in the west. Here a formidable array of home granges outside the precinct stretched from Morker, Cayton, and Haddockstanes on the south, through Warsill on the west to Swanley, Galphay and Sutton on the north. Beyond these, exploitation of the land was based on granges set on the floor of the dales. In this way lower Wensleydale was served by Sleningford, and bracketed higher up by Aldburgh and Nutwith. Pott Grange lay on the flank of Colsterdale, and Bramley at the headwaters of the River Laver. Nidderdale, bracketed by Dacre, Heyshaw and Brimham, was served higher up by Bouthwaite. Kilnsey stood in upper Wharfedale, Arncliffe in Littondale, Malham and the two granges of Bordley lay off the head of Airedale, and Arnford was planted in Ribblesdale. The smaller lodges dependent on these granges followed the gills into the very folds of the Pennines at Foxup and Cosh, Upper Hesleden and Fornagill, Lofthouse, Throp and many another site on the edge of the high moors where the names of Fountains Earth and Fountains Fell still bear witness to the abbey's dominant interest in a vast expanse of land stretching almost without a break from its west gates out into Lancashire.

Consolidation was a costly business, and in carrying it out the abbots were looking towards the future benefits of centralised farming. Nor was it the only expense incurred in the first half of the thirteenth century. Abbot John of York had to employ money as well as tact to steer the abbey through the difficult years of King John's enmity towards the Cistercians, and he and his two successors, Abbot John of Hessle who became bishop of Ely, and Abbot John of Kent, were engaged in expensive building works until 1247. These three Johns were followed by Abbot Stephen of Eston, a theologian and writer of some talent, who died on visitation at Vaudey Abbey in 1252 and was buried there, his tomb later being reputed to 'blaze with miracles'

These abbots and their successors into the second half of the thirteenth century could meet high expenses because Fountains was now one of the most powerful religious houses in the north and the richest of its Order in England. The principal source of its great wealth was wool. All the granges had a basis in mixed farming, but many of them also developed specialised activities. Iron was mined and smelted in Calderdale and Nidderdale, where there were also important lead mines. Stone and slate were quarried in Craven, Nidderdale, Skelldale and on Hutton Moor, and millstones were worked at Sawley and at Crossland near Huddersfield. Sea-fishing was practised off Teesmouth, and footholds were secured in the fish markets of Redcar and Scarborough. The Swale, the Wiske, the Derwent, and the whole course of the Ure and the Ouse from Boroughbridge to York served (or river-fishing, whilst lake-fishing was carried out on Malham Tarn and Derwentwater. Fish-culture was practised on several granges, but principally in some twenty acres of artificial ponds in Fountains Park close to the precinct. Buildings were secured in Boston to act as a headquarters for the abbey's agents during the great fairs of St. Botulph, and in York the abbey had its own town house with resident caretaker and cook to look after the officers of the monastery when they were in the city on business.

But the most important and lucrative form of specialisation was the growth and sale of wool. Here, with true Cistercian thrift, profitable use was made of the great tracts of waste fells that had been granted to the abbey, and they became sheep-runs controlled from the lodges tucked into the gills of the high moors. Each year the Hocks were brought down to lowland granges that acted as shearing-stations, and the clip was transported by packhorse and boat to York for sale in bulk. By the end of the thirteenth century Fountains had become the largest producer of wool in the north, with an annual clip implying flocks of more than 15,000 sheep, and its receipts from the sale of wool alone amounted to almost three times its revenue from all other sources.