I can still remember when, in my early research into our wonderful town, I came across the story of how we once had a Cistercian monastery. It was supported by good evidence and buttressed by The Rev. Whitaker in his History of Craven. Briefly it goes like this: In about 1146 the Norman Lord Henry de Lacy is in bed in his castle at Pontefract feeling a bit poorly. He sent for his priest and asked him to pray for his recovery saying that if he got better he would build a monastery. When he was well he got on to the Abbot of Fountains Abbey and gave him the Manor of Barnoldswick if he would create a daughter house of the Cistercian Order there. In 1147 the abbot sent his prior to Barlick as abbot of the new monastery accompanied by 12 monks and 10 lay brothers one of whom was called Serlo. The Cistercians fell out with the locals, demolished their church because it annoyed them and then found a better option, they left Barlick in 1152 to found Kirkstall Abbey. In 1160 the Kirkstall monks came back and built the present church at Gill.
A simple story, well attested and for years I have been telling about it over and over again. However, of late, I have been looking at it again with a more critical eye. Certain things have always bothered me, according to the records the monks left Barlick on the 19th of May 1152 and I came across the same date in 1147 as being when they arrived. Further, I noted that Sawley Abbey was founded in 1146 by the Percy family and I started wondering what was so special about the time because everybody seemed to be building abbeys! So I did a bit more digging.
I'm not going to go into too much detail but from 1135 to 1153 was a very uncertain time in England and has been dubbed The Anarchy. Basically it was a struggle for the throne and in the course of it many of the barons had to choose sides. De Lacy survived it all but it may well be that in those dark days, both he and Percy thought it would be a good thing to do some good works, like found an abbey or two. The problem is of course that I have no evidence. The account that we have to rely on, the evidence of Serlo to Hugh of Kirkstall is dated 1205 when the Anarchy was over and I can't help wondering whether the account has been sanitised by Hugh so as not to stir up too many memories of the past. Whatever the truth of this there was enough doubt to make me look more closely at the events of 1147 onwards. All I can say at the moment is that some elements of the story we were given stand up but others need a bit more consideration. I'll pick over the bones next week.
The new Cistercian Abbey at Kirkstall?