Abbeys and other Heritage sites of England
Abbeys and Other Heritage Sites of England – An Honest Guide
Fountains, Rievaulx, Whitby, Lindisfarne and Glastonbury – the ruins Henry VIII left behind, England’s World Heritage sites, and Harewood House, a palace built on Barbados slavery.
Why England is full of ruined abbeys
Drive through the English countryside and sooner or later you will see a roofless church standing in a field, its great window empty against the sky. Almost all of them have the same story. Between 1536 and 1541 Henry VIII, having broken with Rome so that he could divorce Catherine of Aragon, closed every monastery, priory and friary in England and Wales – around 800 religious houses. His minister Thomas Cromwell sent commissioners to inspect them, found or invented scandals, and the Crown took their land, their lead roofs, their bells, their gold and silver and their libraries.
It was the greatest transfer of property in English history since the Norman Conquest. Monks were pensioned off or turned out; the poor, sick and travellers who had depended on monastic charity lost it. Much of the land was sold to courtiers and gentry, and many of England's great country houses – including several called "Abbey" – stand on former monastic estates. The abbey buildings were stripped for stone and left to fall.
- Dates: smaller houses closed from 1536, the great abbeys by 1540–41.
- Resistance: the 1536 rising in the North, the Pilgrimage of Grace, was crushed and its leaders executed.
- Who runs them now: mostly English Heritage and the National Trust; a few are private or run by local trusts.
- Prices: roughly £8–20 for the big staffed sites; many smaller ruins are free.
The great abbeys of the North
The Cistercian monks who came to Yorkshire in the 12th century chose wild, remote valleys and turned them into vast sheep farms. Their wool made them rich, and their churches show it.
Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal, North Yorkshire
The largest monastic ruin in England, in a wooded valley near Ripon, joined to an 18th-century water garden of lakes, temples and canals created by the Aislabie family. A World Heritage Site run by the National Trust – allow most of a day. The tower and the vaulted cellarium, 90 metres long, are unforgettable.
Rievaulx Abbey, North Yorkshire
In a steep valley on the edge of the North York Moors, once home to around 650 monks and lay brothers. Many visitors find it even more moving than Fountains because it is quieter. English Heritage; the National Trust's Rievaulx Terrace above gives the classic view down onto the ruins.
Whitby Abbey, North Yorkshire
On the East Cliff above the harbour, 199 steps up from the old town, where the Synod of Whitby met in 664 to decide whether English Christianity would follow Rome or the Irish tradition. The ruin inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula. See our coastal towns guide.
Lindisfarne Priory, Northumberland
On Holy Island, reached by a causeway cut off by the tide twice a day. The Viking raid here in 793 is traditionally taken as the start of the Viking Age in England; the Lindisfarne Gospels were made here and are now in the British Library. Check the safe crossing times – drivers are rescued from the causeway every year.
Byland, Bolton and Furness
Byland Abbey has medieval floor tiles still in place; Bolton Priory in Wharfedale sits by the river with stepping stones; Furness Abbey in Cumbria, built of red sandstone, was the second-richest Cistercian house in England.
The South and West
Glastonbury Abbey, Somerset
In 1191 the monks announced they had found the grave of King Arthur and Guinevere – a discovery that brought pilgrims and money after a disastrous fire. The last abbot, Richard Whiting, was hanged on the Tor above the town in 1539. Run by an independent trust; the town is the capital of English alternative spirituality.
Battle Abbey, East Sussex
Built by William the Conqueror on the battlefield of 1066, with the high altar placed where King Harold is said to have died. English Heritage; walk the battlefield trail.
Lacock Abbey, Wiltshire
A nunnery turned country house, where William Henry Fox Talbot made one of the earliest surviving photographic negatives, of a window in the abbey, in 1835. The village is a frequent film set. National Trust.
Bath Abbey and Tewkesbury Abbey
Two survivors. Bath Abbey became the town's parish church – see our Bath guide. At Tewkesbury, the townspeople bought their abbey church from the Crown in 1542 for its value as scrap, and so saved one of the finest Norman churches in England.
Hailes Abbey, Gloucestershire
Once famous for a phial said to contain the blood of Christ, declared at the Dissolution to be duck's blood or honey coloured with saffron. A quiet ruin near Winchcombe in the Cotswolds.
East Anglia and the Midlands
Castle Acre Priory in Norfolk has one of the finest surviving Cluniac church fronts in England and the prior's lodging still roofed. Bury St Edmunds Abbey, Suffolk, was one of the richest in England – the barons swore here in 1214 to make King John accept what became Magna Carta. Its ruins are now a free public park. Ely Cathedral and Peterborough Cathedral began as abbey churches and survived by becoming cathedrals. In Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, Newstead Abbey became the home of the poet Lord Byron.
For the London churches – Westminster Abbey above all – see our Westminster guide, and for Canterbury, Canterbury Cathedral and the Kent coast. Wales and Scotland are covered on our abbeys and old churches of Britain page.
England's World Heritage sites – the short honest list
Beyond the abbeys, England has some 20 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The ones most visitors combine with a heritage trip:
- Stonehenge and Avebury – see our honest guide; Avebury is free and you can touch the stones.
- Hadrian's Wall – Rome's frontier, garrisoned by soldiers from across the empire, including North Africa; see Hadrian's Wall and its North African soldiers.
- Durham Cathedral and Castle – the finest Norman cathedral in Europe, with the tomb of St Cuthbert from Lindisfarne.
- Ironbridge Gorge, Shropshire – the world's first iron bridge (1779) and a museum landscape of the Industrial Revolution.
- Derwent Valley Mills, Derbyshire – Richard Arkwright's water-powered cotton mills, the first modern factories. The cotton they spun was grown by enslaved people in the Americas – a link the displays now acknowledge.
- Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire – birthplace of Winston Churchill.
- City of Bath, Canterbury, the Lake District, Kew Gardens – all with their own guides on this site.
Heritage built on slavery: Harewood House
Many English heritage sites were paid for by the empire, but few say so as openly as Harewood House near Leeds, built between 1759 and 1771 for Edwin Lascelles, who was born in Barbados in 1712. The Lascelles family were involved in every part of the Caribbean economy: Henry Lascelles was trading enslaved people from 1713, the family lent money to planters and took over their estates when they could not repay, and by 1800 they managed 24 plantations across Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Grenada.
When slavery was abolished, the 2nd Earl of Harewood received over £26,000 in compensation for more than 1,200 enslaved people the family had owned; those freed received nothing. The family's papers, now the Lascelles Slavery Archive at the University of York's Borthwick Institute, are also accessible in Barbados. The present Earl, David Lascelles, has spoken openly about this history, and the Harewood House Trust publishes it on its own website. In Barbados, many people still carry the surnames Lascelles and Harewood. The actor David Harewood, whose ancestors were enslaved on Lascelles land in Barbados, visited the house in 2007 for the BBC.
Harewood is a magnificent Robert Adam house with Chippendale furniture and Capability Brown parkland. Go – and read the history first. See also our pages on stately homes and slave-owner compensation.
Tips for visiting abbeys and heritage sites
- Go early or late: ruins are at their best in low light, and Fountains and Rievaulx are quieter before 11am.
- Check tides for Lindisfarne, and opening days in winter – many English Heritage sites close on some weekdays from November to March.
- Memberships: English Heritage covers Rievaulx, Whitby, Battle and Castle Acre; the National Trust covers Fountains and Lacock.
- Services: abbeys that are still churches – Bath, Tewkesbury, Westminster – hold services that are free to attend.
- Getting there: many northern abbeys are hard to reach without a car; Fountains has buses from Ripon and Harrogate in season.
Heritage tours
Day tours from London reach Stonehenge, Bath, Lacock and Glastonbury; tours from York cover the North York Moors, Whitby and the Yorkshire abbeys.
Tours and experiences
Entrance fees are included in the tour price; tips are not included but are always welcome.
Read next
From the Tower to Bamburgh – and which castles are free.
The best base for the Yorkshire abbeys.
The wider story of English heritage.
Who paid for the great houses.
All our guides to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Where the sugar money began
The enslaved people on the Lascelles plantations in Barbados were shipped from West Africa, many through the forts of the Gold Coast. Our partner sites tell that side: Cape Coast Castle, Elmina Castle and African Independence.
The African side of the story
Britain Adventures is an independent partner website. Our partner sites on Africa and its history are where the stories on this page continue:
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- Ghana: Ghana-Net · Cape Coast Castle · Elmina Castle · James Fort, Accra · They Made Ghana · War Cemetery Cape Coast
- Across Africa: Kenya Web News · Explore Nigeria · Gambia Vibes · Zambia Vibes
- European history: V2 Rocket and Peenemünde · Tannenberg Memorial
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