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Walking here through
the grounds of York Minster,

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I'm in the shadow of the city's
most famous landmark.

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And the earliest part of
the building, the crypt,
was built by the Normans.

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00:00:27,480 --> 00:00:31,440
On my walk today,
I'm going to be looking at
how the Normans transformed York

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into the political and religious
stronghold of the north of England.

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In the course of a fascinating
century, they brought first terror

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and violence to this part
of the country, and then
long-term economic prosperity.

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And they left behind them
a legacy that endured.

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If you mention the Normans
to any true Yorkshireman,
you'll probably get an earful.

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They have a long memory
in these parts,

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and what they're remembering
in particular is the so-called
infamous Harrying of the North.

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In the late 1060s,
there were a series
of uprisings against Norman rule,

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and these were repressed by
the Normans with terrible cruelty.

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Nearly every settlement between
York and Durham was destroyed.

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The very fields were sowed
with salt to destroy agriculture.

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100,000 people were killed,
and tens of thousands more
died of starvation.

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There were even reports
of people resorting to cannibalism.

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The Harrying brought
the north under control

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in the most brutal
and effective manner.

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It meant the Normans had achieved
what the Saxons never quite managed.

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From now on,
Yorkshire and Northumberland

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would be part of
a genuinely unified England,

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with the city of York
as its regional capital.

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There's such an incredible
layering of history here at York.

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It was the stronghold for the
Romans in this part of the country.

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It was very important
under the Saxons, the Vikings
and, of course, the Normans.

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And it went on really mattering.

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These extraordinary walls
were built in the 14th century

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and the Minster itself
wasn't completed until 1472.

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The great walls and Minster
are a sign of York's prosperity
right across the Middle Ages.

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The city benefited from a boom
started by the Normans.

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On this walk,
I'm hoping to see how the invaders

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not only conquered
and controlled this region,

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but inspired faith, commerce,
education and technology -

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the fabric of a new era
for the North.

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From York, I'm going
to be travelling into rural parts

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devastated
by the Harrying of the North.

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Today, it forms the southern edge of
the North York Moors National Park.

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My five-mile walk
will take me from Helmsley

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to the village of Rievaulx,

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through an area reignited
in the late Norman period,

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through the enthusiastic
sponsorship of religion.

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In particular, by the creation
of one of our greatest abbeys.

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Today, the Yorkshire countryside
is littered with romantic
ruins of medieval monasteries,

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but before I head out there,
I've come here, to the edge
of the medieval city of York,

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to see where this link
between York, the Normans
and the monasteries really began.

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'York Museum Gardens is
where I've arranged to meet
Professor Janet Burton,

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'the country's foremost authority on
the monasteries of Northern England.

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'The gardens lie beside
the Roman origins of this city -

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'the fort of Eboracum.

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'But I've come here to see
a very different sort of landmark,

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'established by our country's
next great builders of stone.

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'20 years after the massacre
of the Harrying, William II,
son of the Conqueror,

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'granted this site
to the Benedictines
and started St Mary's Abbey.'

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So is it unusual to have
such a big monastery so close
to the middle of town?

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No, it isn't, really.

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In the 11th century when St Mary's
was founded - the late 11th century -

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it was really quite a normal thing
to do, to found a monastery,

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either within a city,
or in a site like this,

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just outside the walls of the city.

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How are they useful to the King? Why
was it in his interest to have this
vast abbey in the middle of York?

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Primarily,
it was the prayers of the monks.

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They were the spiritual servicers.

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The King looked on monks
as spiritual soldiers.

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But Abbot Stephen himself,
the founder abbot,

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wrote a short narrative

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on the foundation of St Mary's.

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He makes the specific point
that William II was quite aware

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that York
had been a troublesome place.

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So when this stone abbey
started to rise up here
in the late 11th century

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within sight of the stone Minster,

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and you think of the stone castles
that William I had built -

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these were all real symbols
of royal authority.

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What about the link between this
abbey and, perhaps, the more
famous abbeys to the north?

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Many Normans lords,
the new aristocracy
that settled after the conquest,

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they start patronising St Mary's,
they grant lands.

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So, in one way, they're saying,
"If this is the King's abbey,

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"we want to show
our support for the King

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"by supporting his monastery."

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But then they go
and do the same thing
by founding their own monasteries.

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They might build a castle,
but they also found a monastery.

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They get the prayers of the monks,

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but they get a visible reminder
of their power and their authority.

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What about the effect of
these monasteries on the population
of these parts?

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Are these sort of little nuclei
of Norman-ness that are slowly
making the country more Norman?

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I think they were, yes.

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William of Malmesbury,
the Norman chronicler,

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comments on the coming
of the Normans and how,

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I think he said,
in every city and village
you could see churches rise up

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in a style unknown before.
I mean, they were building
and they were building big.

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Sometimes we get mistaken
impressions about monasteries
such as St Mary's.

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They are thought of as being
very inward-looking communities -
little oases.

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But for all that, monasteries did
interact with the communities in
which they were located,

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through developing their estates,
the production of manuscripts,
through education.

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Often Benedictine abbeys ran schools.
St Mary's ran one.

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Local people did comment on the
importance, as they perceived it,

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of monastic houses as providers
of education and hospitality

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and the provision of charity.

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St Mary's would play a role in
York's development for 450 years.

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And in 1132 it
played host to 12 monks,

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travelling from Clairvaux Abbey
in northeast France.

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They represented a radical new
group called the Cistercians,

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determined to live an austere,
self-sufficient lifestyle
in the true manner of St Benedict.

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They were travelling north,
to the area of my walk today,

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destined to become the
focus of a new community

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that would drive development
in one of the remotest
parts of the country.

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And they came at the invitation
of the new Norman lord.

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The town of Helmsley -

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gateway to the vast expanse
of the North York Moors.

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Wild country,
which would have been even more wild

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back in the 11th century, following
the Harrying of the Normans.

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The productivity and the population
would have fallen dramatically.

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But now the Normans
were keen to change all this.

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In particular, a man called Walter
Espec, who built Helmsley Castle.

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50 years after the Harrying,
Walter Espec was a rising star.

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He was the Justiciar of the North -

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effectively,
the King's chief minister.

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He held lands across
Yorkshire and Northumberland

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and would go on to
lead forces against the Scots
at the Battle of the Standard.

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But from 1120 onwards,
this was Espec's main residence.

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Walter Espec was responsible
for the building of this East Tower,

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well, in fact,
the bottom two-thirds of it.

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I love the way you
can still see the original roof.

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It would have been a wonderful home
for him and his family.

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And the chroniclers
tell us that he had
a large library of books as well.

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So this was a scholar, a military
man, and very wealthy as well.

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It seems that the erudite Espec
was a man of his time

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and the late-Norman period
was the golden age

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for the foundation of monasteries.

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This was Espec's opportunity
to seal his passage to heaven,

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enforce his political dominance,
and leave a positive legacy
for this troubled region.

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My real interest today lies
out there on the moors,
and that's where I'll be walking.

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Because it was out there that Walter
Espec gave huge tracts of his lands

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to that group of Cistercian monks

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that had been staying
in St Mary's Abbey in York.

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And they would found the
first ever Cistercian monastery
in the north of England.

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And that's where I'm heading.

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With Helmsley Castle, Walter Espec
had created an awe-inspiring symbol

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of his power and control.

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His next task
was to establish a great institution

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to drive Norman colonisation.

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But as my walk leaves the town,
Espec's impact was more subtle.

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He was guardian of the
massive areas of royal forest -

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land which for the
past three centuries has been
the grounds of Duncombe Park.

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I'll be heading west, following
the Ryedale valley upstream

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through Walter Espec's
moorland estate,

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and into the territory
which he gifted the Cistercians.

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My destination is a small village,
hidden at the bottom of Ryedale

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and clustered around
the ruins of Rievaulx Abbey -

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one of Yorkshire's
great monastic institutions

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and a legacy
that would far outlast the Normans.

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Back at Helmsley, my walk starts in
a legacy of a very different kind -

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the back garden
of Walter Espec's Castle.

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For the past three centuries,
this cleared area

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has served as the parkland of
Duncombe Park - one of the great
country estates of Yorkshire.

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Duncombe Park was set up
by the Duncombe family
in the very early 1700s.

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Now, they had made all
their money in banking.
They were new money.

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So, in that way,
they're an interesting parallel
to Walter Espec,

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who, of course, in the 11th century,
was also a new face.

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A man on the make.

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It's said that the
Norman lords created their
own sporting venue right here -

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a clearing
where moorland beasts were driven in

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and then hunted
for the entertainment
of guests watching from the castle.

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And to this day, you can still make
out the faint ridge in the land

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that once enclosed the hunting area.

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Some of the Duncombe oaks today
could be as old
as this medieval arena.

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This is exactly
the kind of pile Walter Espec
would have built for himself

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if he'd been around
in the 18th century.

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Since 1700, Duncombe Park
has sought to celebrate

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and indulge in the beauty
of the local landscape.

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The Cistercians too
revelled in the solitude

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ensured by the Norman forests
and the remote Ryedale valley.

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But the monks couldn't succeed
without bringing a degree
of civilisation to the moors.

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Fantastic.
This is my first view of this
steep valley here called Ryedale.

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00:13:00,080 --> 00:13:03,560
Rievaulx Abbey lies
at the bottom of that,
a few miles along here.

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My walk's going to take me
along the top of this escarpment.

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Beautiful views all the way, I hope.

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The first thing I'll look at is the
first piece of abbey infrastructure
that's been left behind.

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It's called, on the map,
the Medieval Village of Griff.

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00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:20,160
And this was all part
of the abbey's lands.

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00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:25,960
In 1131, Walter Espec
agreed to give away 1,000 acres

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00:13:25,960 --> 00:13:29,920
of his Yorkshire lands
to the arriving Cistercians.

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00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:33,880
This was but a small donation
from the great Norman lord,

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but for the 12 pioneering monks,
it was enough to establish
their own abbey

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00:13:38,160 --> 00:13:41,520
and remain true
to their ideal of self-sufficiency.

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'On the flat plateau above the Rye,

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'I've come to the land of Griff Farm
to meet the team

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'who've investigated
what took place here

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'on the edge
of Rievaulx's first grant.'

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So, on my ordnance survey map, this
is marked as a medieval village.

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00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:01,400
Is that true?

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00:14:01,400 --> 00:14:02,760
Yes and no.

193
00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:05,640
I mean, Domesday
actually has reference to a vill,

194
00:14:05,640 --> 00:14:06,960
some sort of settlement

195
00:14:06,960 --> 00:14:08,000
on this location.

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00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:11,080
We haven't produced any
evidence of a settlement, have we?

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00:14:11,080 --> 00:14:12,920
We spent six weeks
here a few years back,

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00:14:12,920 --> 00:14:16,920
getting to grips
with the earthworks,
to understand what was going on.

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00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:20,280
Any surprises? Once you look
at the layout and start to realise

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00:14:20,280 --> 00:14:24,640
how the elements of this
site relate to each other,
you realise it's not a village,

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00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:26,480
it's a single unit, a farmstead.

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00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:29,280
The surprise being we
confirmed that it was a grange,

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00:14:29,280 --> 00:14:32,280
not the deserted medieval village
mentioned on the maps.

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00:14:32,280 --> 00:14:36,000
Some of the more substantial
buildings are a really good find.

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00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:39,280
So it's a big prosperous farm, then?
Is that what it is?

206
00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:40,920
That's exactly what it is, yes.

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00:14:40,920 --> 00:14:45,960
It's an monastic farmstead,
an outlying monastic farmstead,
called a grange.

208
00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:50,080
The building we're in is a barn,
we think, from the plan of it
and the size of it.

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00:14:50,080 --> 00:14:54,160
In old French, "grange" means barn.

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00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:56,520
This is the barn
at the heart of the grange.

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00:14:56,520 --> 00:15:00,160
How contemporary is this
to the founding of Rievaulx Abbey?

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00:15:00,160 --> 00:15:02,720
It was there at the beginning
of the foundation.

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00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:05,320
It was part of original grant
from Walter Espec.

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00:15:05,320 --> 00:15:08,520
There was the grant to the abbey
site and the grange land here.

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00:15:08,520 --> 00:15:13,480
The initial grant was for about
the equivalent of 1,000 acres.
It wasn't a contiguous area.

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00:15:13,480 --> 00:15:16,080
It would have been split
between parcels of land.

217
00:15:16,080 --> 00:15:20,960
The parcel of land that would
have come with Griff as the bequest
to the monastery at the outset

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00:15:20,960 --> 00:15:22,680
would have been about 480 acres -

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00:15:22,680 --> 00:15:25,520
about half the total land
given over to the monastery.

220
00:15:25,520 --> 00:15:30,600
This area is not a blank canvas
when the Normans arrive.

221
00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:32,880
It's been used since prehistory.

222
00:15:32,880 --> 00:15:37,640
The name "Griff", which is given
to this grange, is a Norse name.

223
00:15:37,640 --> 00:15:40,800
In other words, we've got
a Viking community living here,

224
00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:46,200
who are farming a substantial
area of arable land up here.

225
00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:49,000
So that's what the monastic
community takes on

226
00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:53,840
and they use that as a bridgehead
for expanding out on to
the North York Moors there.

227
00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:58,040
We look at this today and
it a relatively tame arable landscape

228
00:15:58,040 --> 00:16:01,360
that looks as though
it's been like that forever.

229
00:16:01,360 --> 00:16:04,360
But when the monastic community came
here first of all,

230
00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:10,120
they inherited something that was
more akin to an island of arable in a
sea of heather and moorland, really.

231
00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:14,160
Quite unpromising land
and it needed real vision

232
00:16:14,160 --> 00:16:19,240
and real entrepreneurial
spirit to actually make something
productive out of that.

233
00:16:21,240 --> 00:16:25,640
The Griff was the first of what
became a network of grange sites.

234
00:16:25,640 --> 00:16:28,200
As Rievaulx grew,
it needed more food,

235
00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:32,560
more support work,
and inevitably more income.

236
00:16:32,560 --> 00:16:36,760
By the 1300s,
the abbey had 20 granges,

237
00:16:36,760 --> 00:16:39,440
providing crops, fish,
and vast numbers of sheep.

238
00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:43,760
They were the engine room
of Rievaulx's economy,

239
00:16:43,760 --> 00:16:47,480
and as new benefactors continued
to pledge land and resources,

240
00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:51,000
the reach of the abbey
spread far beyond the moors.

241
00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:56,720
But from the very outset,
the monks created a demand for wood.

242
00:16:56,720 --> 00:17:00,880
And here in Ryedale,
the steep valley sides
have changed remarkably little.

243
00:17:04,960 --> 00:17:07,560
So how could
this woodland here be productive?

244
00:17:07,560 --> 00:17:12,600
This is a piece of ground which
is not much use for anything else.

245
00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:16,120
It's making the best of a bad lot,
in a way, putting woodland on it.

246
00:17:16,120 --> 00:17:19,920
I say putting woodland on it - it's
been wooded since the last Ice Age.

247
00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:23,720
But throughout
the medieval period and
right up to today, as you can see,

248
00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:26,400
it's been managed woodland,
intensively managed.

249
00:17:26,400 --> 00:17:31,640
For most of the medieval period and
for quite a lot of the post-medieval
period, it's been coppiced.

250
00:17:31,640 --> 00:17:34,880
The trees have been
cut right down to the base.

251
00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:38,200
You get that crop of fresh
new growth, which, after 20 years,

252
00:17:38,200 --> 00:17:40,560
is perfect stuff
for charcoal manufacture.

253
00:17:40,560 --> 00:17:44,200
I never know how
you know that something
is an ancient forest or not?

254
00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:47,600
Not necessarily
by the trees that are here today.

255
00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:50,160
We're surrounded
by very modern larch and pine.

256
00:17:50,160 --> 00:17:54,440
But very often by the species
that are at ground level,

257
00:17:54,440 --> 00:18:00,160
which rely on this
injection of sunlight that they
get through the process of coppicing.

258
00:18:00,160 --> 00:18:02,600
This is a particularly
good patch here.

259
00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:07,080
We've got...
these lovely little violets,

260
00:18:07,080 --> 00:18:09,320
bluebells, primroses,

261
00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:13,800
just up there we've got wood sorrel,
and over there,

262
00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:16,240
wild garlic, wood anemones.

263
00:18:16,240 --> 00:18:21,040
So we've got the full range of
species that really characterise

264
00:18:21,040 --> 00:18:23,880
what is the best
of our woodland flora.

265
00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:27,480
'Whilst the demand
for wood lasted centuries,

266
00:18:27,480 --> 00:18:30,880
'the first decades
of Rievaulx's life

267
00:18:30,880 --> 00:18:34,360
'saw a demand for
one special commodity -

268
00:18:34,360 --> 00:18:35,880
'stone.

269
00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:38,000
'Between 1132 and 1260,

270
00:18:38,000 --> 00:18:43,560
'the abbey itself was built,
re-built and regularly extended.

271
00:18:43,560 --> 00:18:47,680
'And right here, in what is
still called Quarry Bank Wood,

272
00:18:47,680 --> 00:18:52,600
'the scars of the building work
are very clear indeed.'

273
00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:56,000
You can see some of the blocks
of stuff they haven't used.

274
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:59,160
Yes, it's almost left in situ,
as they stopped working.

275
00:18:59,160 --> 00:19:03,040
These were some
of the rocks that were
left behind that weren't needed.

276
00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:05,720
'Just a mile downstream
from Rievaulx,

277
00:19:05,720 --> 00:19:08,120
'the monks found
a fine-grained limestone

278
00:19:08,120 --> 00:19:12,040
'which became
part of the abbey's refectory.'

279
00:19:12,040 --> 00:19:16,360
We've seen a couple of others
on the walk. Were they quarrying
all along this face?

280
00:19:16,360 --> 00:19:20,280
Yes, this outcrop of limestone comes
along the edge of the escarpment

281
00:19:20,280 --> 00:19:22,600
and there are other quarries
in this area.

282
00:19:24,120 --> 00:19:28,120
With a keen eye, you can spot
Rievaulx's managed woodlands

283
00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:30,320
and quarries all along Ryedale.

284
00:19:31,880 --> 00:19:35,840
In 1145, Walter Espec was
pleased enough with progress

285
00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:40,080
to grant more lands further
up the valley and into the moors.

286
00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:46,120
But my walk now heads downhill,
into Ryedale for the first time,

287
00:19:46,120 --> 00:19:50,480
and towards the quiet, hidden
focal point of Rievaulx's world.

288
00:19:59,480 --> 00:20:03,280
This is my first proper view
of Rievaulx Abbey.

289
00:20:03,280 --> 00:20:06,600
I always think those extraordinary
buildings and this setting

290
00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:10,600
combine to make it
one of the most evocative ruins
in the whole of Europe.

291
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:21,120
This grand site owes much to
Rievaulx's third abbot, Aelred.

292
00:20:21,120 --> 00:20:24,560
A theologian of international
repute, he presided over the abbey

293
00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:28,240
for 20 years at
the very end of the Norman period.

294
00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:34,120
He was introduced to the area
by none other than Walter Espec,

295
00:20:34,120 --> 00:20:38,040
and was so impressed
that he never returned
to his native Northumberland.

296
00:20:38,040 --> 00:20:41,320
By the end of the Norman age,
Aelred had laid the framework

297
00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:42,840
for this site's development

298
00:20:42,840 --> 00:20:44,760
and had set Rievaulx up

299
00:20:44,760 --> 00:20:48,680
as the biggest hub for commerce
and community in the region.

300
00:20:48,680 --> 00:20:51,480
It's an absolutely massive ruin,
isn't it?

301
00:20:51,480 --> 00:20:53,960
Was this the biggest abbey
in north of England?

302
00:20:53,960 --> 00:20:57,560
Well, getting on that way. Certainly,

303
00:20:57,560 --> 00:21:01,440
it was the headquarters of the
Cistercians in the north of England

304
00:21:01,440 --> 00:21:06,160
and was the first Cistercian abbey
in the north of England.

305
00:21:06,160 --> 00:21:08,960
So, its size warrants
its status in that way.

306
00:21:08,960 --> 00:21:11,200
How many monks would
there have been here?

307
00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:16,360
At its height,
there were 150 choir monks -

308
00:21:16,360 --> 00:21:17,880
this is mid-13th century -

309
00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:22,000
and upwards of 450 to 500
lay brothers looking after them,

310
00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:24,280
so they were doing
most of the manual work.

311
00:21:24,280 --> 00:21:26,400
That's a big settlement.
It is indeed.

312
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:30,080
So which parts are Norman?
Principally the nave
that we're in now.

313
00:21:30,080 --> 00:21:33,400
If you turn round
and look at the walls,

314
00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:38,600
you can see we've got
two sets of Romanesque Norman arches.

315
00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:45,120
Then on top,
where the stone changes colour,

316
00:21:45,120 --> 00:21:48,040
that architecture
is more or less 100 years later.

317
00:21:48,040 --> 00:21:52,360
So those rounded ones are Norman?
Absolutely.
That's the Norman part of the abbey.

318
00:21:52,360 --> 00:21:56,760
That's a key piece of general
knowledge. Absolutely.
Round ones are Norman.

319
00:21:56,760 --> 00:22:01,320
Once you start to get more pointed,
you're into Gothic.

320
00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:05,440
This bit either side of us
is Norman as well? This is
more or less Aelred's church.

321
00:22:05,440 --> 00:22:11,360
The rest of the architecture,
going further,
building higher and longer,

322
00:22:11,360 --> 00:22:15,080
is about 100 years later. You're
about 1220, finished by about 1260.

323
00:22:15,080 --> 00:22:19,520
As the abbey starts making
more money, it starts to
build extensions. Absolutely.

324
00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:22,920
You can build higher, nearer to God,
and longer, because you can.

325
00:22:22,920 --> 00:22:27,560
What are the monks up to during
that golden age? Some are
in here studying and praying,

326
00:22:27,560 --> 00:22:29,960
others are out reclaiming land
and farming?

327
00:22:29,960 --> 00:22:33,520
Yes. Because they were
a self-sufficient community,

328
00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:38,240
the more land they got and the
more the population grew here,

329
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:41,720
of course they needed more supplies
to keep that community going.

330
00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:45,440
But they were very quickly
into trading in wool.

331
00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:50,200
Wool was the principle
economic measure at that time.

332
00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:53,520
They were foremost,
certainly in this country,

333
00:22:53,520 --> 00:22:57,960
in formulating in the Middle Ages
the wool industry in this country.

334
00:22:57,960 --> 00:23:01,320
The farming implements
all had to be made.

335
00:23:01,320 --> 00:23:04,040
They were very much
into iron smelting.

336
00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:08,720
They were mining iron
further up the valley and
bringing it back here and smelting.

337
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:14,360
So there were furnaces here during
the monks' time and continued
well after the Dissolution.

338
00:23:14,360 --> 00:23:19,160
So you think the legacy
of the monks here continued
well into modern history?

339
00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:21,720
Absolutely. With the Dissolution,

340
00:23:21,720 --> 00:23:25,480
the iron industry carried on
for another 100 years,

341
00:23:25,480 --> 00:23:28,360
because it was
an important economic area

342
00:23:28,360 --> 00:23:32,040
and it's as a result
of the iron industry
that we have the village now.

343
00:23:32,040 --> 00:23:34,920
So what happened to the
great founder, Walter Espec?

344
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:37,320
Well, it's interesting.

345
00:23:37,320 --> 00:23:42,840
The reason for the founding
of the abbey was that he'd lost
his son in a riding accident

346
00:23:42,840 --> 00:23:46,480
and so declared that God
would be his heir to his lands.

347
00:23:46,480 --> 00:23:50,840
He then ended up, in the
last ten years of his life,
coming back here as a monk.

348
00:23:50,840 --> 00:23:54,480
So he gave up all the power
and prestige? Absolutely. Really?

349
00:23:54,480 --> 00:23:59,080
Absolutely. He entered as a novice
and was accepted into the orders

350
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:04,400
and spent the last years of
his life here, within the abbey
that he'd helped to found.

351
00:24:04,400 --> 00:24:08,800
He must have been seriously
worried about his soul.
Well, there's that about it.

352
00:24:08,800 --> 00:24:12,360
Giving the land ensures you
get through the pearly gates.

353
00:24:12,360 --> 00:24:17,480
'The remarkable actions
of Walter Espec show just what
kind of people the Normans were -

354
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:20,280
'men of action and ambition.

355
00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:27,960
'Perhaps his motive
was no more than to gain
his own entry into heaven.

356
00:24:27,960 --> 00:24:31,760
'But the greatness of
his institution is undeniable

357
00:24:31,760 --> 00:24:34,840
'and the ruins still dominate
this valley.

358
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:39,000
'The simple Cistercian aims of
solitude and self-sufficiency

359
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:44,840
'attracted so much support
that they would end up controlling
the wool and mining industries,

360
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:48,000
'building lines of communications
across the moors,

361
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:51,520
'and back to
the trading hub of York.'

362
00:24:53,480 --> 00:24:57,680
This sturdy Georgian bridge may
only be just over a couple
of hundred years old,

363
00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:03,000
but it's replacing a Norman bridge
which would have been doing
exactly the same job,

364
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:07,800
and that is connecting the abbey
there with all sorts of things
like granges and wool houses,

365
00:25:07,800 --> 00:25:10,600
quarries and ironworks
further up the dale.

366
00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:15,960
The Normans imposed an
infrastructure here of bridges,
roads and drainage ditches,

367
00:25:15,960 --> 00:25:21,520
which ensured that the moors
would never be the same again.

368
00:25:21,520 --> 00:25:25,400
And the true extent of the Normans'
legacy in the North

369
00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:29,880
only becomes clear
when you look at the range of
other institutions they founded.

370
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:34,000
The monks of St Mary's
were so impressed
with the visiting Cistercians

371
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:35,880
that some quickly left to establish

372
00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:40,560
their own Cistercian abbey
at Fountains.

373
00:25:40,560 --> 00:25:44,120
This site, and Rievaulx,
would become medieval giants,

374
00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:47,840
but would sit alongside
Kirkstall and Roche,

375
00:25:47,840 --> 00:25:50,680
Kirkham and Byland,

376
00:25:50,720 --> 00:25:54,320
Whitby, Jervaulx, Selby,

377
00:25:54,320 --> 00:25:55,600
and in the northwest,

378
00:25:55,600 --> 00:25:58,120
Furness and St Bees.

379
00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:05,040
In medieval England,
only the King could match the
monasteries for wealth and power -

380
00:26:05,040 --> 00:26:08,120
a fact that Henry VIII
would find intolerable.

381
00:26:09,320 --> 00:26:14,080
But the Dissolution of the
monasteries couldn't change
the fact that for four centuries,

382
00:26:14,080 --> 00:26:20,040
a nationwide network
of Norman institutions had developed
everything from faith to farming.

383
00:26:20,040 --> 00:26:25,080
And here in remote Yorkshire,
the Norman abbeys are celebrated
more than anywhere.

384
00:26:25,080 --> 00:26:28,240
Quarries, mining, woodland and ruins

385
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:31,760
are all part of the fabric
of a National Park.

386
00:26:34,080 --> 00:26:38,960
And to end my walk, I've
climbed up here to Rievaulx Terrace,

387
00:26:38,960 --> 00:26:43,760
which, 150 years
after the Dissolution,
became part of Duncombe Park.

388
00:26:46,880 --> 00:26:50,440
Sir Charles Duncombe
bought both the Helmsley Estates

389
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:54,680
and the Rievaulx Estates
for the sum of £90,000.

390
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:57,880
The lands that
Walter Espec had divided in 1132

391
00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:00,800
were back together once again.

392
00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:04,440
Ah, there we go.
Lovely gap in the trees there.

393
00:27:04,440 --> 00:27:06,280
You can see Rievaulx Abbey -

394
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:10,560
the grandest folly imaginable
for the Duncombe family estate.

395
00:27:15,760 --> 00:27:18,360
I find it hard to
believe that Walter Espec,

396
00:27:18,360 --> 00:27:22,840
the powerful Norman baron
who helped found this monastery,

397
00:27:22,840 --> 00:27:25,160
ended up swapping
his castle and his lands

398
00:27:25,160 --> 00:27:27,680
to end his days
as a monk down there.

399
00:27:27,680 --> 00:27:31,080
It seems hard to imagine with
our 21st-century sensibilities.

400
00:27:32,920 --> 00:27:36,760
In Yorkshire, we can see
the Normans at their most barbaric.

401
00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,280
But, as illustrated by Walter Espec,

402
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:42,720
also at their most devout
and forward-thinking.

403
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:51,640
For me, Rievaulx really
embodies all things Norman -

404
00:27:51,640 --> 00:27:53,920
the love of
ambitious building projects,

405
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:58,720
the obsession with power,
wealth and Christianity.

406
00:27:58,720 --> 00:28:01,120
Walter Espec died in 1154,

407
00:28:01,120 --> 00:28:05,960
which was coincidentally
the same year as the last
Norman king, Stephen.

408
00:28:05,960 --> 00:28:09,040
But by that time,
this abbey and others like it,

409
00:28:09,040 --> 00:28:12,280
were transforming
this landscape totally.

410
00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:17,560
They were ushering in
a new era of prosperity and
international trade and commerce,

411
00:28:17,560 --> 00:28:21,680
and they were helping to
cement this part of the country

412
00:28:21,680 --> 00:28:24,320
into the new Anglo-Norman kingdom.

413
00:28:46,440 --> 00:28:49,480
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414
00:28:49,480 --> 00:28:52,520
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