Large-scale tannery discovered at Fountains Abbey

[THE LARGEST TANNERY yet discovered at a monastic site in Britain has been identified at Fountains Abbey in Yorkshire – revealing some remarkable new evidence about the community of monks and lay brothers who lived there and their central role in spreading Cistercian worship.

It had always been a puzzle what a long ‘bowling alley’ type extension of the east side of the Fountains Abbey precinct could have been used for. Now ground-penetrating radar, backed up by other geophysical survey methods, has made unexpected discoveries of unknown monastic buildings filling the whole width of the World Heritage Site.

The surveys – carried out by the University of Bradford, Guideline Geo, Geoscan Research and Magnitude Surveys, in partnership with the National Trust – reveal two substantial stone buildings, 16m wide – one of them at least 32m long and more than a single storey in height – with lined pits, tanks and other structures around them. Along with the proximity to the river for water, they were a key requirement for the tanning process –

leading to the conclusion that it was the tannery serving the community of Fountains Abbey.

Tanning was a vital part of the abbey economy. Animal hides would be de-haired and cured to make leather for uses such as clothing, belts, bedding, book bindings and vellum or parchment for reproducing religious texts by the monastic scribes. Nevertheless, the sheer scale of the discovery, and where it is sited close to the rest of the abbey community, has surprised archaeologists.

Mark Newman, National Trust archaeologist, explained: “A tannery of this size, spanning such a large area of the site, reveals an operation on an industrial scale, meeting the needs for leather and other processed animal skins for the community of hundreds of people in the growing monastic community. Its scale also reflects an aspect of the productivity as equals.

Mark Newman added: “The scale of the operations we’ve discovered here really takes one aback, but it all fits the bigger picture once you get over the initial surprise. The Cistercians – and especially the community at Fountains – were pioneering farmers and land managers on an industrial scale. They had to be, to support the enormous religious community that rapidly built up and the vast building projects they undertook, in praise of God.” q

Photo © University of Bradford

A ground-penetrating radar scan of the tannery site

of the huge herds the abbey acquired and managed.”

The latest findings probably also show the importance of lay brothers on the site. Lay brothers followed a different daily round of religious observance: they were not literate like the monks and were often recruited as mature men to bring crucial craft skills to the monastery, relieving the monks from most physical jobs so they could be free to dedicate more time to study, prayer and worship. However, lay brothers were ’Separate but Equal’, according to St Bernard, creator of the

Cistercian Order – not intended to be inferior to the monks.

The need for leather and parchment continued throughout the abbey’s life, and while in later years the numbers of lay brothers reduced, due to social changes such as better economic and other opportunities outside the abbey community, the tannery remained in operation right until the last days before the Dissolution of the Monasteries in October 1539.

Recognition of the scale of the community of lay brothers may help to explain the very large number of burials previously discovered in the monastic cemetery nearby. Monks and lay brothers were buried together