University of York, Exhibition Square, York YO1 7EP
The earliest wing of the complex of buildings now known as King’s Manor was once part of the richest Benedictine abbey in the North of England. St Mary’s Abbey
University of York, Exhibition Square, York YO1 7EP
The earliest wing of the complex of buildings now known as King’s Manor was once part of the richest Benedictine abbey in the North of England. St Mary’s Abbey was founded in 1088 and rebuilt from 1271 onwards on a site just outside the city walls. Completed in 1294, the new abbey included a cloister, chapter house, scriptorium, library, kitchen and novice’s accommodation. The buildings were largely dismantled in the years following Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 and the few remains of the abbey itself give little impression of its size and magnificence.
Simon de Warwick, Abbot of St Mary’s from 1258 until 1296, oversaw the abbey rebuilding programme which included a new Abbot’s House most likely constructed on the foundations of an earlier 11th-century s