Originally constructed in 1238 this Monastery was a big deal. There was a church, a chapter house and an abbot's lodging. It fell on hard times with Henry VIII and his suppression of the catholic church in 1536. Henry transferred ownership to Sir William Paulet who modified it in the form of a Tudor mansion. The original works were made of stone but the additions used a core of brick with a stone exterior. This mansion was abandoned in the 1700's and were eventually sold for the building materials. During the salvage operations a worker was killed and the work was stopped. What is left was greatly overgrown until the area was cleared out in recent times. The ruins feature greatly in various well known British paintings and in literature. It is said that it was the inspiration for Northanger Abby in one of the works by Jane Austen
First some lunch at the Prince Consort pub
We have never been disappointed with a Fish n Chips in England
A juicy chicken sandwich with skinny fries
Roses!
A nice selection of colors
A raven on the park bench
Where does this lead?
We have arrived
Passageway of ruin
There was some that they got the same window guy that did Winchester Cathedral
A rather large area here
Warnings against climbing were numerous
Some places were still very detailed
Other areas were barely hanging together
A mix of construction times
The brick is the newest
What lies in this dark shadow
Arches everywhere
A fine window in its day
A very large building indeed
Big openings
Some old graffiti
EM? It looks like the roman numerals were corrected with a few more X's
The most ruinous part of the ruins
The trees were massive
A delightful and romantic way to spend a bit of time
What monkey???
This was not covered ion the AirBnB manual
