It can be said that the Cistercians came to the ‘Desert in the North’ and made it flower. But how ? Their economic guidelines were, as Graves points out, unorthodox, being a complete contradiction of the Benedictine system, where the monks lived off the manorial system. The Summa Cartae Caritatis in XXIII prohibits the possession of ‘churches, altar revenues, burials, tithes from the labour or harvest of outriders, manors, serfs, land-rents, oven and mill revenues, and all other incomes of the kind, as contrary to the purity of the monastic vocation’. Therefore, the Cistercians set themselves a hard task, but then the Cistercian life was not meant to be an easy one! However, the monks of Rievaulx, Fountains, Byland, Jervaulx, Kirkstall, Roche, Meaux and Sallay had the enterprising spirit and boundless determination needed to make them economically self-sufficient, even if it meant straying from the Ideal. But were the methods employed to achieve this - converting ‘waste’ into arable land, to form the grange system, sheep farming and the wool trade, and the mining and smelting of iron, among others -‘revolutionary’, and did they contribute greatly to the North’s economic development ?

After the initial gift of land, the Cistercian abbeys were inundated with further gifts of land of different kinds - open field strips, cultures held in severalty, patches of waste meadow and woodland, many of which were some distance away from the abbey. For the next two centuries the monks put considerable effort into consolidating these lands by assarting, exchanges and purchases. Their aim was to avoid any aspect of the manorial system and contact with peasant agriculture. Eventually, between 70 and 80 percent of Cistercian arable was held in fairly compact blocks. These land holdings, known as grangia (granges), formed the backbone of Cistercian economic development.

Although common in the north-east from the twelfth century onwards, granges were mainly confined to the estates of the new reformed monastic orders. The Augustinians had granges here, but these were not as large or as economically successful as Cistercian granges. The Augustinians had to pay their tenants to work the land. In contrast, the Cistercian granges were staffed by lay brothers, who were unwaged. In the concept of lay brothers lay the key to sustaining and expanding the Cistercian grange system.

The granges were worked from a group of buildings — barns and animal sheds, possibly a grain or fulling mill, accommodation for the lay brothers, and sometimes a chapel. The greatest concentration of granges were situated in the northern part of the Vale of York, and the foothills to the east and west. This was the area containing largely ‘wasted’ holdings recorded in the Domesday Book, and by the time of the Cistercian plantation in the North (1151), the effects of the Harrying of the North were still painfully evident. The Cistercians were well placed to play an important part in the revival of agriculture in Yorkshire, because sooner or later, it would happen. Donkin argues that lay patrons may have given large areas of land to the Cistercians as incentives, in anticipation of this.¹ Bishop elaborates further, stating that after 1070 some of the dales were drained of population by landowners who were anxious to re-colonise areas which were potentially more productive, especially in the Vale of York. ²

Some 44 percent of all known twelfth century granges in Yorkshire lay in territories which were described as ‘waste’ or ‘largely waste’ in 1086. In the case of the granges of Fountains and Rievaulx, these percentages were 56 and 62 percent respectively. The Cistercian skill in assarting land clearly illustrates their determination .to succeed and become self-sufficient. Donkin states that only two or three granges were carved entirely out of natural wasteland.³ The Cistercians acquired run-down properties, or, if they contained peasants who remained or had returned, depopulated them. This rather harsh tactic occurred at Bramley, Brimham and Aldburgh, all belonging to Fountains, among other examples. These people were either removed all at once, or, in the case of Thorpe Underwood, (Fountains again) gradually. This depopulation was inevitable if the Cistercians were to succeed in their programme of consolidation. An example is the Rievaulx grange of Griff. This was part of L’Espec’s original grant. It was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and the site seems to show clear evidence of the layout of a medieval village i.e. field enclosures, walls of small plots or buildings, a sunken trackway. Therefore, depopulation could have occurred, or Griff was a run-down holding, already devoid of people. A contrast is Newlass Grange, not part of the original L’Espec grant. This site contains evidence of various barns and other buildings, which suggest that it was a new foundation rather than a ‘lost vill’. They seemed to have made land exchanges almost into an ‘art form’, so skilled and shrewd were the Cistercians in their desire for large, enclosed blocks of land, to be worked by them, for them. In the Chartulary of Fountains, under Malham (the site of a grange confirmed in 1189-99) it says - " he [the grantor] has exchanged with them [the monks] a certain part of his land and the land of his men living in Malham, namely an acre for an acre, so that their [the monks'] cultures shall be together in the same field, separate from the grantor’s".⁴

Cistercian granges were first mentioned in 1145. Before 1200 there were at least 75 of them in Yorkshire (24 of these belonging to Fountains alone), and their numbers grew in the thirteenth century. These granges varied in size, the average being, in Bishop’s view, between three and four hundred arable acres. ⁵ In the case of Meaux, within a decade of being founded (c.1l6l) the abbey possessed about 1,300 acres. ⁶ The total acreage of a grange with four hundred arable acres might be over one thousand acres. Wharram, an early Meaux grange, eventually contained 1,128 acres of arable, and 219 acres of meadow. The Cistercians did not recognise an upper limit of size for the mixed or arable granges, but one thousand acres of tillage was about the maximum.

An example of the massive spread of granges belonging to one Cistercian abbey can be illustrated with Rievaulx. The lands were grouped in six main areas - the most northerly along the river Tees. The importance of the Tees as a navigable waterway and an artery of trade enhanced the value of these lands. The river was an important fishery and salt panning was in operation at its mouth, thus the abbey made use of these advantages, and these lands made a vital contribution to Rievaulx’s economy. The second group were on the fringes of the moors to the west, from Greenhow to Boltby. The third group was in Bilsdale and Ryedale (a north-south valley, the abbey being situated at the southern end). Walter L’Espec gave the monks all of Bilsdale as a later supplementation of his initial grant. The monks soon established a large concentration of granges along the ten mile stretch of the valley. They had extensive pasture rights here, and it was also the principal routeway between the Vale of Pickering and Cleveland. However, the greatest concentration of lands was in the Vale of Pickering — the first, to the west, comprising fertile land, the second, in the centre, comprising reclaimed marshland, which, after the monks had obtained quitclaims from anyone with a right to it, brought in the grange system, and by 1301, this area contained several of Rievaulx’s most prosperous granges — a testament to the Cistercians skill in assarting. The final group was in the east, near the coast, with marshland of Folkton and chalkland of Hunmanby. This tremendous radius of granges snows the success of the Cistercian grange system as a viable economic machine. The granges are situated at fairly regular intervals, serving as handy ‘stopping-off’ points for the abbot or cellarer on his visitations, or lay brothers on business. In addition, Rievaulx also held lands much further away, such as Flockton Grange in the West Riding, 50 miles from the abbey, where they held iron mining interests (much further than the one day’s ride stipulated by the General Chapter!)

The Cistercians, it must be assumed, managed their estates with a great degree of skill. They would, through regular travelling between houses, have heard of what was going on in other parts of England and on the Continent, and therefore hear about new methods of farming and be able to introduce new crops. They became adept in the disposal of manure from their sheep and cattle stocks, and they were also marling. These granges were the most vital single contribution of the new monastic orders, and the Cistercians in particular, to the transformation of the landscape and economy of Yorkshire in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. As mentioned earlier, granges were not invented by the Cistercians, but it was them, by their single mindedness and shrewd economic planning in consolidating their lands, who made a major contribution to the revival of agriculture in the North.

However, this was at a price. The Cistercians, in their pursuit of economic excellence, became increasingly estranged from the original Ideal. All the things which were forbidden in Summa Cartae Caritatis XXIII were eventually incorporated into their scheme of things. As Graves points out, these manorial elements were forbidden fruit, and thus were tempting. The Cistercians used hired labour, acquired serfs (either by purchase or as accessories to gifts of land, as happened before 1186, when Roger de Thorneton gave the monks of Byland some villein (serfs) "to do whatever they wish with these men from me and my heirs in perpetual freedom" ⁷ for half a mark of silver). They also possessed mills and churches (Meaux owned the advowson of a church prior to 1182),⁸ and held market and fair privileges (though not explicitly mentioned in the Rule, it was contrary to the Cistercian ideal of withdrawing from the ‘world’). This enabled the monks and lay brothers to sell only surplus produce, and buy any they were deficient in. Meaux had a weekly market at the manor of Wyk-on-Hull (Kingston-on-Hull) and a weekly market at the manor of Pokelington (Pocklington). Therefore the Cistercians participated in and thus contributed to the economic growth of the North. The increase in importance of markets grew due to growth in the money economy and the decline of the closed manorial economy. This was especially true in Yorkshire, with its preponderance of the grange system in which the Cistercians were the major ‘players’.

However, the Cistercian’s most lucrative and innovative contributions to the economic growth of Yorkshire were their activities in sheep farming and the wool trade. The greatest period of commerce in wool was the thirteenth century. However, there was activity from the time of Domesday and before. The nuns of Minchinhampton were grazing two thousand sheep in Gloucestershire some years before the Cistercians came to England. It is important to note, though, that the area in which the best wool was produced in the largest quantities - Yorkshire - sheep farming only began to flourish after the Cistercian ‘plantation’ of the area.

Contemporaries such as William of Newbury in the 12^th century and Mathew Paris in the 13^th, stressed how important a role wool played in the Cistercian economy. The general chapter also gave considerable attention to sheep and wool trading. Moreover, when it was necessary to raise a ransom for Richard I in 1195, the Cistercians were required to give up to a years’ clip of wool, as it was their best asset. Graves argues that Cistercian sheep-farming came about by accident. The Order was orientated towards an agricultural and pastoral economy, but the great wastelands of Yorkshire lent themselves more easily to flock-rearing than crop-growing.⁹ The Cistercians realised the potential and exploited it to the hilt. It is no wonder that Darby in his Economic Geography of England A.D. 1000 - 1250 states that the Cistercians transformed northern England from a wilderness to a sheep-run. Grants crop up, such as in c.1185-93, when Kirkstall Abbey acquired an estate in Seacroft, and wood ‘to make their hedges and to build folds and sheep-houses on my land when they have need.' ¹⁰

As well as wool, the second most important product was manure. At Rievaulx before 1175, the monks paid a rent of three shilling a year for a grant of pasture for two hundred sheep, thirty cows and one bull. It was expressly stipulated that the donor would receive the manure produced. Another by-product was milk which might be used to make cheese.

However, wool was the most important commodity. A useful piece of evidence to illustrate the extent of exports to Flanders is the list drawn up by Francesco Balducci Pegolotti, a member of merchant house of Bardi, at the end of the thirteenth century. The prices are probably estimates but it can still be deduced that the Cistercian houses were getting more for their wool than houses of other orders, and that all eight Yorkshire abbeys are in the top twenty listed; Fountains, Rievaulx and Jervaulx being the most productive. It has been estimated that a sack of wool contained about two hundred fleeces. Therefore, Fountains, with seventy-six sacks, must have had about fifteen thousand sheep.

An important factor which was no doubt responsible for the Cistercians gaining higher prices for their wool from the merchants was their practice of, as well as washing and preparing the fleeces, grading wool into three classes - best, medium and lock wool. They were also experts in the care and management of their flocks. The monks mixed tar with grease to form sheep salve, but, although some Cistercian records mention disease among animals, the policy of keeping flocks on enclosed estates meant there would be less risk of a disastrous epidemic. In addition, some writers argue that improvements in sheep-breeding also took place. It is said that the monks of Kirkstead cultivated the Lincolnshire breed. Fletcher states that "the Order, because of its intercourse with foreign countries, brought about great and important improvements in the breeding of sheep".¹¹ This is all speculation, as eighteenth-century improvements wiped out all that had gone before, but it is likely that the Cistercians, in their quest for the best prices, used their considerable know-how to obtain the best possible fleeces. A knowledge of the Cistercian’s superior management no doubt influenced the merchants to do deals with the monks. They were organised, efficient and produced a uniformly better fleece than anyone else.

The Cistercians also acted as ‘middle-men’, handling the sale of wool produced by others, such as the peasant farmers with small flocks. The wool gathered was called ‘collecta’, and kept separate from the abbey wool. The General Chapter tried to ban this practice, but the monks ignored this. It was a lucrative trade and also another incentive for merchants to come to them. The practice of advance selling of wool accompanied by a large pre-payment became the norm, though it was risky, if there was loss of quantity through disease, as the merchants required something else as security. Fountains even mortgaged its abbey and lands as such a security in 1276.

Therefore, the Cistercians reared, clipped, cleaned, prepared, graded and packed its wool and stored it (and the collecta) in their woolhouses. They even transported the wool to the ports to be shipped abroad. Hull and York were the country’s chief wool markets and ports, and the York suburb of Clifton was the major collecting point along the Ouse. Other such towns were Boston and Lincoln. In connection with their commercial interests, mainly wool and hides (as well as their involvement in markets and fairs) many of the Yorkshire houses had holdings in the above towns, even though it was strictly against the founding Charter. It can be seen, then, that the Cistercians were not, by far, the only sheep farmers in the area, but they were infinitely more skilled in the rearing of flocks. This and their shrewd business sense brought, in the thirteenth century especially, the Italian merchants literally ‘knocking on their door’. Whether they were breeders or not, the Cistercians revolutionised the wool trade, and by their involvement, made a major contribution to the growth of towns such as York, and the economy of the North generally. They put it on the map as the place to go for superior wool.

Some monasteries had the good fortune to be granted land under which were substantial mineral deposits, and they were not slow in exploiting it. Rievaulx possessed Flockton Grange and Byland had Bentley Grange at Emley and Denby Grange. All these estates were situated near Wakefield in the West Riding, a long distance away from the abbeys themselves. In every case, the abbey concerned took care to ensure a monopoly of mining rights, free passage to the site, and an adequate supply of timber for charcoal. Most mining sites were near to a river, which would be diverted if need be to bring water to the mine. One example of a grant of mining rights is a licence granted in 1226 by William de Bretton to Byland Aibbey regarding Bentley Grange. "He also granted the monks a licence to take [iron] stone for burning at his grange of Bentley... and to quarry as much stone as they could with free entrance and exit to them and their men". The usual type of mine was a circular shaft sunk to the level of the vein with the ore at the bottom of the shaft, and when this was all removed, they sunk another shaft nearby. When the ore was removed, it was washed and put into a furnace, either a stationary or moveable one. The best example of such circular shafts (bell pits) is at Bentley. Iron was a very valuable commodity — needed for plough shares, horseshoes, arrow tips, spades, nails, ship’s anchor’s etc., and thus the monks profited from their efforts and enterprise.

The Cistercians also had several other economic interests, such as water and fishing rights. They also paid a great deal of attention to the breeding and rearing of livestock.. The quest for pasture rights can only be interpreted in terms of an interest in raising animals. Most rights were obtained either by purchase or on a lease, as they were on private land. Certain valleys had a concentration of cattle, such as Nidderdale, where Fountains and Byland acquired pasture rights. They also had lead and iron mining rights too. There was usually a preponderance of one activity on the granges, but some were mixed. There is little evidence of hard figures for animals possessed by an abbey. However, the Kirkstall Chronicle for 1264 lists 16 draught oxen, 85 cows, 16 yearlings and young bullocks, 21 asses, but no sheep (this could be due to disease over the winter). Cattle were raised for milk, hides, draught power and manure. The greatest profit of grain produced by the abbeys could be derived from the animals it fattened. Swine were also raised. This must have been solely for trade, as neither meat nor lard were permitted in the monastic diet, (though they were eaten by guests and the sick). Since monks normally had easy access to woods, swine farming was cheap and profitable.

The monks of Jervaulx became adept at breeding fine horses. Fletcher argues that some of the exceptional racehorses which have hailed from Middleham and the surrounding high ground, "sprang from the stock sedulously cultivated by the monks".¹² The bleak and cold of Jervaulx probably made it impossible to grow crops. The monks would have recognised this early, and with the shrewd business sense with which the Cistercians, as has been seen, possessed in abundance, they began to breed horses which could range on the extensive moors surrounding the abbey. Horses were a very valuable commodity for transport and exchange in this period, and the Jervaulx breed (and also the Furness breed in Cumbria) became famous for its superior quality, as were many products of the Cistercian ’economic programme’.

It can thus be observed that, by 1300, the North, and Yorkshire in particular, was a veritable ‘hive of industry’ - totally transformed from its desolate state as described in the Domesday Book. There was acre upon acre of arable land and meadow, sheep and cattle grazing all around, and bell pits dottirig the landscape. Towns were thriving, weekly markets being held to buy and sell produce, Italian wool merchants inspecting wool destined for export, the wheels of commerce spinning as they did before the Conquest. In England generally, times were good. The climate was warmer, the population was growing, rents were rising and wages falling, and there were record harvests year after year. The Cistercians were at the heart of the economic upsurge in the North. Their methods for achieving their own economic growth were not unique, but the formation of the massive grange system, the revival in iron mining, and especially, their involvement in the wool trade, were better executed by them than any other monastic order or lay person. They were the premier entrepreneurs of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, a massive conglomerate with the weight of the Pope behind them, and they were outstanding in their energy, enterprise and single-minded determination to succeed. Although many others were involved, the Cistercians were the prime movers in the resurgence of the North’s economy, and although their methods were not entirely revolutionary in themselves, their skill in organisation and profit-making certainly was. Thus, through their fame and superior products, the Northern economy benefited. However, the Cistercians, living increasingly materialistic lives, lost their spiritual credibility along the line.

1. R.A. Donkin - ‘The Cistercian Order and the Settlement of Northern England’. (Geographical Review, Vol 59, 1969) p. 409.

2.T.A.M. Bishop - ‘The Norman Settlement of Yorkshire'. (Studies in Medieval History, 1948) p. 6.

3.R.A. Donkin - op.cit. p.409

4. Chartulary of Fountains, II, 460 (undated) vide also 466 (from R. A. Donkin -The Cistercian Grange in England in the 12th & 13th centuries, with special reference to Yorkshire (Studia Monastica, 1964) pp 113-114)

5. T.A.M. Bishop — Monastic Granges in Yorkshire (English Historical Review No. CCII, 1936) p. 209.

6. Chron. Melsa, I, xxiii (from R.A. Donkin, op.cit. p. 117)

7. B.M. Add Mss No. 7459.

8. Chron. Melsa, I 218 (from C.V. Graves - The Economic activities of the Cistercians in Medieval England, Analecta Cisterciensit, XII,1957) p. 9.

9. C.V. Graves - op cit. p.21.
10. David Hey - Yorkshire from AD1000 (Longman, 1986) p.66.

11. J.S. Fletcher - The Cistercians in Yorkshire (SPCK, 1919), p.152.

12. J.S. Fletcher, op cit. p.114

Bishop, T.A.M. - Monastic Granges in Yorkshire (English Historical Review, Vol. LI, 1936)

Butler, Lionel and Given-Wilson, Chris - Medieval Monasteries in Great Britain (Michael Joseph, 1979)

Donkin, R.A. - Cistercian sheep-farming and wool sales in the thirteenth century (Agricultural History Review, VI, 1958)

Donkin, R.A. - The Cistercian Grange in England in the 12^th and 13^th centuries, with special reference to Yorkshire (Studia Monastica, 1964)

Donkin, R.A.- The Cistercian Order and the Settlement of Northern England (Geography Review, Vol. 59, 1969)

Fletcher, J.S. - The Cistercians in Yorkshire (S.P.C.K., 1919)

Gilyard-Beer, R. - Fountains Abbey (Department of the Environment, 1970)

Graves, Coburn V. - The Economic Activities of the Cistercians in Medieval England (1128-1307) (Analecta Cisterciersit XII, 1957)

Hey, David - Yorkshire from A.D. 1000 (Longman, 1986)

McDonnell (ed.) - A History of Helmsley, Rievaulx and District (The Stonegate Press, 1963)

Platt, Colin - Abbeys of Yorkshire (English Heritage, 1988)

Popham, F.S. - A History of Christianity in Yorkshire (Religious Education Press, 1954)

Waites, Brian - The Monastic Settlement of North-East Yorkshire (Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, Vol. XL)

(From) Wroot, M.F. - Yorkshire Abbeys and the wool trade (Thoresby Society, XXXII, 1930) Pegolotti's list

Early Cistercian Documents in Translation -Exordium Cistercii; Simma Cartae Caritatis et Capitula; Exordium Parvum; Carta Caritatis Posterior (by Bede K. Lackner from 'Les plus anciens textes de Citeaux' - by Jean de la Croix Brouton and Jean-Baptiste Van Damme) (Achel: Abbaye Cistercienne, 1974)

Cistercian Foundation Documents - The Statutes of the Cistercians (from The White Monks by L.J. Lekai, 1953, pp. 262-5); Benefactions to the Abbey of Rievaulx (from W. Dugdale Monastican Anglicanum, Vol V, p. 281); Foundation Chronicle of Kirkstall Abbey

Grants to Northern Cistercian Monasteries -
(I) Early gifts and acquisitions - from Swain, Son of Ulkill de Bretton to Byland Abbey; BM Add Mss No. 7459; BM Add Mss No. 7427; British Museum additional charters 1432; Rievaulx Cartulary Nos. 94, 95, 294; Fountains Charters BM Cotton 241v
(II) Consolidation - DDSR/1 Savile of Rufford papers; BEA/C3/B7; BM Add Charters 7456; Byland Abbey deeds Add Mss No. 7534 British Library; Licence granted by William de Bretton to Byland Abbey for iron-smelting on Bentley Grange; BEA/B3/B10; Kings Bench, Westminster, DCCXCVII - between Henry Abbot of Byland and Thomas son of William (de Bretton) (Case 263, File 30, No. 15); Byland Abbey deeds Add Mss No. 7435 British Library; VR 4968 Fountains Charters

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