Thornton Abbey was a medieval abbey located close to the small

North Lincolnshire North Lincolnshire is a unitary authority area in Lincolnshire, England, with a population of 167,446 in the 2011 census. The borough includes the towns of Scunthorpe, Brigg, Haxey, Crowle, Epworth, Bottesford, Kirton in Lindsey and Bar ...

village of

Thornton Curtis Thornton Curtis is a village and civil parish in the North Lincolnshire district of Lincolnshire, England, approximately south-east from the town of Barton-upon-Humber. The population (including Burnham) at the 2011 census was 295. The name ''T ...

, near Ulceby, and directly south of Hull on the other side of the

Humber The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between t ...

estuary. Its ruins are a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, including notably England's largest and most impressive surviving monastic gatehouse. It was founded as a

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. Priories may be houses of mendicant friars or nuns (such as the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Carmelites), or monasteries of ...

in 1139 by William le Gros, the Earl of Yorkshire, and raised to the status of

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The con ...

in 1148 by

Pope Eugene III Pope Eugene III ( la, Eugenius III; c. 1080 – 8 July 1153), born Bernardo Pignatelli, or possibly Paganelli, called Bernardo da Pisa, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1145 to his death in 1153. He ...

. It was a house for Augustinian or black canons, who lived a communal life under the Rule of St Augustine but also undertook pastoral duties outside of the Abbey. Officers within the abbey included a cellarer, bursar, chamberlain, sacrist, kitchener and an infirmer. A medieval hospital also operated near the abbey, founded no later than 1322. Due to its involvement in the area's burgeoning wool trade, Thornton was a wealthy and prestigious house, with a considerable annual income in 1534 of . The abbey was closed in 1539 by Henry VIII as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. It managed to survive by becoming a

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

college, until it was closed in 1547.

Thornton Abbey railway station Thornton Abbey railway station is close to the site of Thornton Abbey in North Lincolnshire, England. It was built by the Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway in 1849, replacing a temporary one at Thornton Curtis. It also serves the v ...

is nearby.

Later history

Since the Dissolution of the Monasteries, the site has been owned by: Henry Randes (the Bishop of Lincoln); Sir

Robert Tyrwhitt Robert Tyrwhitt (1735–1817) was an English academic, known as a Unitarian. Life Born in London, he was younger son of Robert Tyrwhitt (1698–1742), residentiary canon of St Paul's Cathedral, by his wife Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edmund Gi ...

of Kettleby; Sir Vincent Skinner of Westminster (in 1602); Sir Robert Sutton; George Appleby; and in 1816 Charles, 1st Baron Yarborough. In May 1859, members of the Lincoln Diocesan Architectural Society visited the site and were given a guided tour by the Rev. J. Byron of

North Killingholme North Killingholme is a small village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in North Lincolnshire, England. Situated on the southern bank of the Humber Estuary north-west of Grimsby, Killingholme is divided into two administrative distri ...

. A report of the tour, published by the '' Stamford Mercury'', records that access to site had been restricted due to damage "by bands of modern Vandals". Brass effigies, some in place, others "strewed amongst the growing grass", and the entrance to a subterranean passageway were also observed. In 1938, Sackville Pelham, 5th Earl of Yarborough handed the care of the abbey remains to HM Office of Works. The site is currently in the care of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

and open to the public. It is necessary to book a visit in advance, and the interior spaces are closed at present.

Architecture

The founding abbey building from the 12th century was Romanesque in style, but nothing of it remains above ground. The later abbey from the 13th/14th centuries was built in

Early Gothic Early Gothic is the style of architecture that appeared in northern France, Normandy and then England between about 1130 and the mid-13th century. It combined and developed several key elements from earlier styles, particularly from Romanesque ar ...

style. Little remains of the building, except for three walls of the chapter house and part of the

cloister A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...

, though the ground plan of the abbey is traced out. The main interest lies in the gatehouse which is among the earliest large-scale uses of brick in England. It stands two storeys high and is structurally intact. There are few windows in the building, and the internal dimensions are cramped due to the thickness of the walls. The outside of the building is adorned with three almost life-size statues directly above the gate. A bridge over the moat adjoins the gatehouse and is fortified with walls and

garderobe Garderobe is a historic term for a room in a medieval castle. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives as its first meaning a store-room for valuables, but also acknowledges "by extension, a private room, a bed-chamber; also a privy". The word der ...

s. The nearby Abbot's Lodge is also a Grade I listed building. Elements of the ground floor of the monastic range of Thornton Abbey were converted to a house and the first floor rebuilt in the 17th century, reputedly by Sir Vincent Skinner, but the structure collapsed upon completion.

Archaeology

Thornton Abbey was relatively under-examined for its size and importance, until English Heritage launched a program of research beginning in 2007. This initial non-invasive research was followed by excavations performed by the

University of Sheffield , mottoeng = To discover the causes of things , established = – University of SheffieldPredecessor institutions: – Sheffield Medical School – Firth College – Sheffield Technical School – University College of Sheffield , type = Pu ...

Department of Archaeology between 2011 and 2016, directed by Dr Hugh Willmott. In 2013, continuing excavation work uncovered a Black Death

plague pit A plague pit is the informal term used to refer to mass graves in which victims of the Black Death were buried. The term is most often used to describe pits located in Great Britain, but can be applied to any place where bubonic plague victims were ...

in the cemetery of the abbey's hospital, containing the remains of at least 48 individuals including the skeletons of 27 children. DNA was successfully extracted and tested positive for ''

Yersinia pestis ''Yersinia pestis'' (''Y. pestis''; formerly '' Pasteurella pestis'') is a gram-negative, non-motile, coccobacillus bacterium without spores that is related to both ''Yersinia pseudotuberculosis'' and ''Yersinia enterocolitica''. It is a facult ...

'', the bacterium responsible for the plague, making this the first instance in Britain of a Black Death mass grave found in a rural, rather than urban, area. Dr. Willmott stated: "The finding of a previously unknown and completely unexpected mass burial dating to this period in a quiet corner of rural Lincolnshire is thus far unique, and sheds light into the real difficulties faced by a small community ill-prepared to face such a devastating threat."

Burials at the abbey

* William le Gros, 1st Earl of Albemarle *Aveline de Montfichet, wife of William de Forz, 3rd Earl of Albemarle

References

External links

Page on English Heritage's websiteBlog post on the plague pit excavation, including video clips
{{coord, 53.6550, -0.3098, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title English Heritage sites in Lincolnshire Ruins in Lincolnshire Monasteries in Lincolnshire Augustinian monasteries in England 1539 disestablishments in England Religious organizations established in the 1130s Grade I listed buildings in Lincolnshire Christian monasteries established in the 12th century Museums in Lincolnshire Religious museums in England Gates in England 1139 establishments in England Ruined abbeys and monasteries Monasteries dissolved under the English Reformation