Thank you, Allan, for this lovely tour. The Abbey is a wonder since it's so much intact compared to the majority of them. The tiled floor is exquisite and a British treasure. As ever, I am grateful for this channel, and look forward to your next one! With gratitude.
I really would not mind watching these sites for an hour instead of 15 minutes and see more details. I love the slow and gentle filming, giving us the possibillity to have a good look al all details! Thank you!
Fascinating tour of Cleeve Abbey. You really get a feel of how Medieval monks lived and how the community was integrated into the local area. So informative as always Allan, thankyou.
I was riveted by this beautiful and information packed video. You are so good at these. No one else I've seen on RU-vid provides as much information with their videos of ancient places as you do. We can enjoy watching vids of places but not know what we are looking at. You provide the context which makes it a much richer experience to see the places. Gobsmacked so much of it remains. I would love to visit it. The timber ceilings (I have only seen a few this old), tile work, extant paintings and lovely stone work are so evocative of their time. The vast destruction of the Dissolution breaks my heart. How devastating it must have been to people when it happened! 😢
Interestingly, I watched Time Team last night, Season 14, episode 12. They were trying to find a Cistercian Abbey in Cheshire. Your tour of Cleeve Abbey has made it all come alive and make sense. The tile floor is stunning. Thank you, Allan.
Thank you Allan for this wonderfull tour. Greetings from Finland 🇫🇮❤. It love old buildings (medieveval especially)with rich history .Love yours country.
Allan, you referenced “internal Justice”, could you please do a story on that for monks and nuns? I’ve only seen “Cadfael” and their version of it. Loved this episode!!!
The English people have been living in denial for 500 years. Many people, even if they are not particularly Christian, still have a vague notion that the Reformation was 'a good thing' the Middle Ages were dark, superstitious and scary, and that the monks were useless layabouts. It's high time to reclaim our Catholic heritage. Thank you, Allan, for your accurate and loving portrayal of mediaeval England.
Isn’t it sad that these people are so ashamed of, and even insult their own rich heritage, allowing lesser groups to rule over them and spread lies about their heritage and religion. It’s depressing to hear the horrible lies about the past, not on this channel but others. Hopefully one day the truth will be told.
this was a beautiful tour! I loved the tiles and the ceiling beams. Such a lovely place to go wander round in. It looks quite peaceful. Thank you so much, Allan!
Thank you so much for this lovely video. Even through the ether I felt the peace and atmosphere of the place, due to your careful filming and reverent gentle commentary.
Hi Allan, what incredible treasures the UK lost due to Henry and Elizabeth l. I can't seem to find the link to the book on Cleve Abbey. Please can you tell me where it is? Thanks.
Thanks for this really excellent video. The Abbey is less than 20 miles from where I live in Somerset, and I've been planning to visit for some years. Unfortunately, first Covid, and then family issues have got in the way. However, I hope to visit it this summer.
I visited Cleve Abbey just over a year ago. I also spent about 3 hours walking all over the grounds and buildings. Fascinating place. I was not so fortunate as you in that it rained all the time I was there. Not that that bothered me. I ended up sitting on one of the benches under an umbrella soaking in the atmosphere. I shall have to visit again soon - hopefully on a dry day next time!
Thank you, Allan, for a wonderfully informative and insightful video into the fascinating history and surviving claustral buildings of Cleeve Abbey - it was genuinely enjoyable to watch.
Another great video Allan-thank you. I'm fascinated by the dissolution of the Monasteries-and seeing this was a treat. What those walls must have seen is mind blowing to me. Many Thanks for bringing it to life.
Going back a few years I got a personal tour of the abbey from one of the helpers who was a friend of ours . Very interesting place . The tiles are lovely and so are the grounds .
How wonderful! So well preserved compared to other abbeys! 😍 Thank you very much for taking us with you. I wish I could visit it and stare at the walls for hours. Yes, I love taking my time, staring and imagining and starting to notice every little detail. And Cleeve Abbey has enough nooks and crannies to spend days to stare at them. 😂
I'm not much for religion, but I've always had an interest in medieval monks and how they lived. It was inspired by the Brother Cadfael mysteries, written by Ellis Peters. Good stuff.
Truly Lovey, I enjoy these visits so much! The medieval floor is a wonderful gem. I’ve only seen samples on Time Team…Te he he! Thank you for again sharing, I always learn something and have my online reference at hand so I can take a deeper dive and decipher new words! ❤
I love those tiles, what a treat to see them laid out in a riot like that! The episode of Time Team where they tried to recreate them is one of my favorites, explaining how they were produced by a central industry and sold by itinerant tile merchants, I suppose by ox-cart. From this evidence, it seems that their reconstructions of patterns as laid seem to be entirely too regular hahaha
Hi Allan, what a wonderful location and interesting history. Over here in Canada and I believe the US as well our ground floor and 1st floor are interchangeable. Your first floor is our second. But I suspect you already knew that. ;-)
Brilliant video with very informative and knowledgeable commentary. Thank you. I visited the abbey a couple of years ago and it brought back good memories
We have a caravan on a beautiful tural site in Mark somerset and having visited Cleeve a number of times i never knew much of this! Msny thanks Allan x
This was a real interesting video. Does anyone know what they used for a level ? How did they manage to build such upright walls while maintaining levelness, right angles and straight lines ? The mortar they used must've been from a perfect recipe. No wonder that masons were highly regarded .
Very nicely done. You have a great talent. I implore you to take advantage of this gift. (Edit) I see you have a body of work, and I see I have been subscribed for quite a while. I just felt I had to say I loved this video. Please, please continue.
Thank you again Allen for another great video. I came across your channel at the time you posted on the Royal vault at Saint George and have been hooked ever since. I also saw your post on the vault on the Stuart's, another amazing post. You said that you were going to go back because others deserved a post of their own, do you know when you'll be doing this. Lastly is everyone in Westminster buried in vaults? Are any just covered over by the slab you see at top? I am very interested in Pit the Younger and came across something saying he was buried in a vault with his family in Westminster, do you know if this is true?
Thank you, Allan, for this interesting tour! It was timely as I just finished C. J. Sansom's novel "Dissolution" which takes place during the years King Henry VIII was dismantling and redistributing the wealth of the monasteries. The monks in the novel lived very well, indeed! And then the party was over ...
´Thank you again for this wonderful tour. I get very angry when I hear the word « dissolution » used euphemistically instead of greed and destruction. What a great loss to the world!Grrrrrrrrrrr……….
The law may have been the law, but it was an unjust law out of hatred for the Catholic Church and monastic life. That is why they dissolved monasteries. They were greedy and wanted the land for themselves and the Abbot got off easy because many Catholic monks had to flee to France to save their lives. Priests were being hunted down like prey and imprisoned in the Tower of London and other prisons for the "crime" of being Catholic and for giving people the Sacraments. They were tortured and hung or beheaded for that reason. Blessed Edmund Campion was one of those martyrs. Topcliff and his men were ruthless. Henry Viii too was a lecherous man who developed a hatred for Catholics. His successors were especially ruthless in exacting persecution and murder of Catholics in England. That monastery is well preserved considering the fact that they purposely confiscated it and turned it into a nobleman's farm.
Abbots of Reading, Glastonbury and Colchester were hanged, drawn and quartered, along with the imprisonment of monks and friars as you stated. “Dissolution” and “suppression” seems a woefully inadequate descriptor of what was really anti-Catholic religious persecution.
It was terribly unjust and of course caused lots of social as well as religious strife. A monastery like Cleeve was a social support system for the poor and destitute, and it was replaced with nothing but laws against vagrancy and in time the poor law, which made it essentially illegal to be poor. Henry VIII was a wicked man.
Wonderful, thank you. Didn’t carrodians often sign over their properties in exchange for maintenance by an abbey? Instead of a payment in cash, I mean. This was done especially when couples or individuals had no heirs, but this might be called by another term than carrodian. I understood that this was one way the medieval abbeys grew their assets and income.
Thank you for this comprehensive look at the abbey. However, I am interested in the logistics of catering for everyone so would like to have seen the kitchens. I imagine they would be massive but were they? Regards, Veronique.
