Rievaulx Abbey
— — the church the valley kept after the roof was gone.
Not only on a wall.
“A ruined Cistercian abbey in a narrow valley of the River Rye, north of Helmsley in Yorkshire. The white monks settled here in 1132, the first Cistercian house in the north of England, and at its height the community ran to several hundred brothers and lay brothers tending sheep on the moor above. Henry VIII closed it in 1538. What remains is the soaring east end of the church and the long line of the refectory, open to the weather, the stone going pale gold in late afternoon. — from the studio
Rievaulx Abbey, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Rievaulx Abbey sits in a steep-sided valley of the River Rye in the North York Moors National Park, about three miles northwest of Helmsley and roughly 30 miles north of York. It was founded in 1132 as the first Cistercian monastery in the north of England, a daughter house of Clairvaux in Burgundy sent at the bidding of Bernard of Clairvaux. Under the third abbot, Aelred of Rievaulx, the community grew to around 140 choir monks and several hundred lay brothers and is said to have been the largest Cistercian house in England by the late twelfth century.
The standing remains are dominated by the soaring east end of the abbey church, rebuilt in the Early English Gothic style between about 1220 and 1250, three storeys of lancet windows surviving almost to roof height. The long line of the refectory, raised on an undercroft to clear the slope to the river, runs at right angles to the church. Henry VIII's commissioners suppressed Rievaulx on 3 December 1538, and the lead was stripped from the roofs soon after. The site passed into the care of the Office of Works in 1917 and is now managed by English Heritage.
Rievaulx is open daily in summer and on a reduced winter schedule; English Heritage charges admission, with free entry for members. The on-site museum holds carved capitals, floor tile, and finds from the cloister. A steep path climbs the western slope to Rievaulx Terrace, a half-mile grass walk laid out in 1758 by the Duncombe family with two classical temples positioned to frame the ruins below; the Terrace is owned by the National Trust and charged separately. Helmsley, with the castle keep and the market square, sits three miles southeast and pairs naturally with the abbey on a single day.