St Mary's Church, Abbeydore

This was formerly an Abbey Church, founded in 1147 near to the River Dore by a group of Cistercian Monks who arrived here from Morimond, in France.

It is difficult to convey the scale of the building in one photograph. The most striking aspect is its height. Looking up to the rafters inside gives the impression that it is at least twice as high as an average church, as can be appreciated by comparing the height of the entrance doorway on the left, and the roofed portion in the foreground with the rest of the building.

The extant portion is all that remains of the Cistercian Abbey which once occupied the site. The nave of the Abbey stood to the left of the part remaining: all that can be seen now is a roofline where it abutted the existing structure, which in the Abbey, was the ‘crossing’ underneath the tower in the original building.

(Information provided by Rosemary Lockie)