Waverley Abbey

At the edge of Farnham are the ruins of Waverley Abbey. This is the first abbey founded by the Cistercians in England. It was begun in 1128. Let that sink in for a while.



Unlike the Titchfield Abbey, this place was not taken over and converted to a mansion. It was simply left in a field to decay. There are (possibly) more recent things here: an ancient yew tree and a very old oak.

The oak stands, all bare and in winter mode, at the end of a section of fallen wall.

Other sections of wall are more intact, but still in bad shape.

There is even a section where the gothic architecture is still apparent.

Here you can see where the opening of large windows once stood.

But the gothic arches and the ribbed vault still remain in enough detail to suggest a space of grandeur.

With only a small amount of imagination, you can see the church that once stood here

I found this bit of arch detail faciniating. We were standing in this modern-day cow pasture (lots of cows about) freezing in the January wind thinking about the 900 year old monks who had much less to wear that I did. Yet these devoted acolytes managed to carve all these ribs and the supporting stonework. I'm in awe.

These are narrow for a gothic window, but still they are evocative.

Here, finally, is the Ancient yew tree standing near a section of wall.

Another ancient tree stands at the corner of the remaining structure. Lifting its arms to heaven, it seem to remember the original purpose of the dedicate group of men (for they were all surely men here) who built this place.