St Mary’s Abbey, York: The ruined Yorkshire abbey where 13 monks were 'expelled' after a riot

There had been a short-lived church on the site, founded in 1055 and dedicated to Saint Olaf, but following the Norman Conquest it was given to a group of Benedictine monks from Whitby Abbey.

The monastic community grew with the arrival of more monks from Lastingham in the North York Moors.

A major dispute at the abbey in 1132 began when some monks argued against what they claimed was lax discipline. They demanded stricter observance of the rules of their founder, the most Blessed Benedict.

Following what has been described as “a riot”, 13 reform-minded monks were expelled.

They asked the then Archbishop of York, Thurstan, for help in establishing what would be a Cistercian monastery and he suggested land next to the River Skell near Ripon.

Six springs on the site inspired the name of Fountains Abbey.

In 1137 a fire destroyed much of St. Mary’s. Rebuilding work began in 1271, took 24 years to complete, and today’s ruins date from this programme.

The abbot’s house was built in 1483, and renamed the King’s Manor to house Henry VIII’s Council of the North after St. Mary’s and other abbeys had been closed in 1539.

The monks were pensioned off and the abbey became the king’s palace when in York, but the buildings gradually fell into disrepair and for a time were used to house farm livestock.

Archaeological excavations in the 1820s produced many of the finds now on display in the adjacent Yorkshire Museum.