England - Byland Abbey, First View

Andrew and I did a lot of driving around in the rural north of England, me behind the wheel on the right and he on the left-hand side as the passenger.  This was the most unusual aspect of this trip - and the one I was most worried about - this new configuration and driving on the left side of the road instead of the way the Lord intended everyone to drive.  Thank goodness Andrew was with me, giving patient and most-times gentle guidance whenever I wondered too close to the left curb, subconsciously closing the distance I was used to between me and the left side of the road.  At first it was terrifying, but after about three days I got the hang of it because, after all, there was no choice!  Did damage the front bumper once, however, as I ended up on the sidewalk and overrode some decorative rocks correcting myself back onto the road (thank goodness for the insurance we chose to add to the rental car).  And there was also the time I missed a house by one inch while trying to cut through a neighborhood.  I'm convinced that it wasn't only Andrew that was looking after us.

It was on the second leg of our trip, near Thirsk, when we were carefully weaving our way down country lanes to make a reservation at the Black Swan restaurant in Oldstead, in the middle of nowhere, when suddenly THIS loomed into the windshield after we rounded a bend.  My gosh, what in the world is this and what is it doing here?  I pulled over in a heartbeat and dug out the Bigger Cahoona from the back seat.  Not a soul was on the road, or on the property either where this magnificent thing stood, so we had the place to ourselves.

There was a sign there, and a small museum nearby, and it turns out we had stumbled upon the Byland Abbey.  We knew nothing about abbeys or the abbey system, but learned from the sign that it was built in the year 1170 and was designed to house up to 200 monks and 100 laymen.  I did research upon returning from vacation and learned further that King Henry VIII outlawed the abbey system when he perched himself as head of the Church of England, so this among dozens of other abbeys dotted all over the countryside were abandoned by 1535.  The place was then gutted by looters, and later, when there was nothing else to pillage, the residents of the area took to tearing the very walls down to use the stones for their houses.  A fascinating history can be found here, along with some good pictures and a depiction of what it probably looked like when functioning as a monastery.  In the article it is said to be "one of the shining lights of northern monasticism" of its day, and it's easy to see why.

But for the present, Andrew and I had the place to ourselves and had a field day.  For beginners, the setting sun on its face with the dark, angry clouds behind could not have been more ideal.  And from there we just ran all over the place, exploring, climbing (as much as my old knees would allow), and snapping away with a very happy camera.  The combo of the old crumbling structure, about which we knew nothing and didn't expect to see, along with a total lack of people, plus the setting sun that shone through to illuminate the many facades, kept the Bigger Cahoona very busy indeed.

The picture below takes in most of the property, which might give perspective in the shots that will be posted in the coming days: