Dore Abbey

A Bit of History…

The building of the abbey church began in the year 1175 and was consecrated about a century later by St Thomas Cantilupe. The design of the church was modelled on that of Morimond Abbey in France from where the white robed Cistercian monks had come from; with a presbytery, two chapels, two transepts, a crossing and a nave.

During the early-13th century the abbey expanded its land holdings which was granted to them by King John in 1216. The abbey became wealthy and was described as a “sumptuous church”, and was largely rebuilt in the Early English style. The presbytery was expanded, and additional chapels and domestic buildings including a chapter house were added.

In 1321 the Abbot of Dore Abbey was given a relic of the Holy Cross and the abbey became a centre of pilgrimage.

The abbey was dissolved in 1536 during Henry VIII‘s Dissolution of the Monasteries. The abbey was later purchased by a local landowner, John Scudamore, a member of a gentry family historically connected with Owain Glyndŵr, who demolished much of the buildings except for the church. But then in the 1630s it was saved when Viscount Scudamore, the great-great-grandson of John Scudamore, began to restore the church reusing stone from the old abbey buildings, including building the tower. New stained glass was provided and the walls were painted with instructional pictures and texts, many of which remain visible today. The original mediaeval altar was found in a nearby farm and was returned to the church.

The medieval presbytery is said to be one of the finest Cistercian survivals in the west of Britain. Large parts of the 12th and 13th-century buildings, including the north and south transepts and the interior columns, together with some tiles, wooden fittings and stained glass, still remain in place today. The building also houses two 13th-century effigies, and a collection of carved stone roof bosses, including a Green Man, which have been carefully preserved since the Reformation.