The Abbey Church of the Holy Trinity & St. Mary, in Abbey Dore, Herefordshire, England
Dore Abbey was a house of Cistercian monks, founded 1147 by brothers from Morimond in Burgundy. Misinterpreting, it seems, the Welsh ‘dwr’ (water), they named the new foundation “Abbaye d’Or”, from which is derived not only the name of the abbey, and the adjacent village of Abbey Dore, but the valley it lies in – the Golden Valley. The abbey reached its apogee in the early 14th c. under the rule of Abbot Straddell, a noted scholar, theologian and diplomat, but in later years it had a troubled financial history and was consequently swept away in the first round of suppressions in 1536. The property passed to the local Scudamore family, but it seems part of the church may have remained in some sort of use to serve the local inhabitants. In any event, in 1632 the then Viscount Scudamore, ashamed at the way his family had profited from the dissolution, restored the church east of the nave crossing arch (parts of the nave still survive outside), and it was re-consecrated in 1634 – a very rare example of a former monastic church being restored to use. Dore Abbey and the sadly reduced remains of Holmcultram Abbey, at Abbey Town in Cumberland, are the only former Cistercian churches in England to remain in use for divine service.
Size: 3526px × 5333px
Location: Abbey Dore, Herefordshire, England
Photo credit: © David Knighton / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: abbey, abbeydore, britain, british, church, cistercian, country, dore, england, english, exterior, golden, herefordshire, kingdom, monks, parish, scene, topographical, uk, united, valley, white
