More information : [Area TF 1891 6164] Remains of Kirkstead Abbey [GT](Cistercian Founded A.D. 1139). (1)
The Cistercian Abbey of Kirkstead was founded in 1139, and was moved a short distance to a better site in 1187. It was dissolved in 1537. Part of the south wall of the south transept survives and air photographs show extensive earthworks in the area. See AO/LP/63/119 and 120. Scheduled. (6).
St Leonard's Chapel See TF 16 SE/10 stands near the gates. (2-7)
The site of the abbey is marked by extensive grass covered foundations, and a surviving portion of walling attaining a height of c. 20 m. See G.Ps. AO/64/372/4-5. The site is enclosed by a strong moat. Immediately to the north is a extensive fishpond complex. Resurveyed at 1:2500. (8)
[TF 1895 6160] Medieval pottery and concentration of animal bone, shell and some painted glass found at supposed site of Abbot's Kitchen, Kirkstead Abbey. (9)
Plan of the precinct and elevation of the south wall of the south transept, drawn by William Stukeley in 1716. (10a)
View of the south wall of the south transept, drawn by Samuel Buck in 1726. (10b)
The abbey was founded in 1139 at a site that has not been located but was probably close to the existing one. The abbey quickly attracted recruits but the original site was too small for expansion. Formal permission for a move was granted in 1187 by Robert, son of the abbey's founder, but the style of the architecture on the present site dates to about 1175 at the latest. The document of transfer thus probably marks the completion rather than the start of work on the present church. (Both articles also discuss and analyse the style of architecture in detail). (10c-d)
Kirkstead is the only one of Lincolnshire's five Cistercian monasteries to preserve above-ground evidence for its church. Peter Fergusson (auths 10c-d) acknowledged that the detailing at Kirkstead is less advanced than at Roche Abbey, but declined to draw the obvious conclusion that Kirkstead is the earlier building. Construction of the present church may even have begun as early as the 1150s, for the grant of a quarry made to the abbey probably before 1161 indicates that the monks were already building in stone, not timber, by this time. Robert's charter granting permission to move the site of the abbey is conventionally dated 1187, but is certainly earlier for Robert was dead by 1185; other evidence suggests the charter could have been signed as early as 1162. (10e)
TF 1884 6165 (FCE). The abbey precinct is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, number Lincolnshire 6 (auth 6), and is put down to permanent pasture. It measures c8.5ha/21 acres in extent and is defined by a moat, now for the most part dry. The buildings within the precinct have been heavily robbed for stone, and survive as a mix of earthworks and low grass-covered wall-lines apart from the south-east corner of the south transept of the abbey church which stands to eaves height and is a Grade I listed building (10f). However, with the exception of the moat, church, and claustral area, much of what survives on the surface would seem to be the remains of a post-Dissolution house and gardens (TF 16 SE/19). The fishpond complex to the north of the precinct has been redesignated as a separate site (TF 16 SE/20).
It is possible that the original site of the abbey lay immediately south of the present site in the area now occupied by St Leonard's (TF 16 SE/10), which APs show stands at the centre of two rectilinear enclosures (TF 16 SE/18).
The precinct moat is deepest in the west where it is upto 2.4m deep, and is generally well-preserved with the exception of a short stretch of its north arm immediately west of the modern gate into the field. A low bank visible in places along the moat's inner edge indicates the existence of a precinct wall. A causeway c30m wide in the centre of the north arm of the moat seems original and should mark the position of the main abbey gate. Other causeways across the south and west arms are modern. A long channel leading off the east arm of the moat and running parallel to the north arm is probably a monastic fishpond. A complex of smaller ponds in the south-east corner of the site are as deep as the moat and are probably also monastic, as is another only 1.2m deep coming off at right angles from the south arm in the south-west corner of the precinct. Other pond features in the north-west corner of the site, however, are later garden features going with the post-Dissolution house which stood on the probable site of the abbey guest house in the south-west of the precinct (see TF 16 SE/19).
The abbey church and main claustral buildings are situated in the south-eastern quadrant of the precinct. Few structural details are traceable on the surface, but the general sites of buildings are recognizable as mounds of grassed-over collapsed or discarded material from the initial demolition, contrasting with clear, level areas around and between them which probably represent yards and courts. Later phases of stone robbing in the form of robber trenches and hollows suggest the position of the occasional wall. The character of the robbing here is in great contrast to other parts of the precinct where the plans of buildings are in part recoverable from the pattern of the robber trenches, suggesting that these were robbed at a different (later) date. Many of the supposed wall lines shown by auth 8 are in fact no more than upcast from the robbing. The abbey church is located on the northern edge of the claustral buildings, very near the centre of the precinct. The position of the south-east corner of the south transept is fixed by the surviving masonry fragment, but otherwise its site is marked by no more than a grassy mound. Another mound some 40m to the north represents the position of the north transept, although here the positions of the walls are suggested by very slight trenches visible in the mound's surface. By contrast the area of the church crossing between the transepts and the presbytery to the east is very low and flat as if it has been comprehensively robbed and all the stone carted away; a shallow curving trench probably represents the final robbing of the church's east end. A ditch running away east towards the moat is modern. Little detail survives on the surface to the west from which to reconstruct the nave and aisles. A long mound down the east side of the modern track that crosses the church just west of the transepts is probably upcast from the robbing/demolition to the east. For 15m-20m west of the track the nave and aisles lie buried beneath a metre or more of collapsed/demolished material. This is then cut through by a large robbing hollow. A shallow trench visible at the southern edge of the hollow probably marks the line of the wall of the south aisle, whilst another trench parallel to it that runs east from the north-east corner of the hollow should indicate the position of the north aisle wall. To the west, a long, high mound should be the west wall of the church - possibly still standing to a considerable height but buried beneath tumbled and discarded masonry. Low banks coming off the west side of the mound have shallow robber trenches along their lengths indicating that they represent wall lines. They define a small rectangular structure some 10m across: whilst this could be a porch to the church, it is more likely a later garden feature (see TF 16 SE/19). If the positions of the principal walls have been correctly identified, they indicate that the church measured almost 90m long by 20m across its nave and aisles. South of the church a rectangular, level, depression approximately 30m square is the cloister. It is defined by substantial grassy scarps, most marked to north and east. The modern farm track is now embanked across the area. The positions of building ranges around the cloister are indicated on the ground by substantial, broadly rectilinear, mounds. The mound marking the site of the lay brothers' range to the west is c17m wide and extends from the church for c90m as far south as the main abbey drain which is visible today as a long channel running almost parallel to and 20m-25m inside the line of the south arm of the moat. A large depression immediately north of the drain is probably the room beneath the lay brothers' reredorter; otherwise scarps on the mound's surface on the whole seem to represent robbing and not actual walls. A rectangular court with a deep depression along its southern side immediately west of the north end of the range would seem best explained as part of the gardens
going with the later house on the site (TF 16 SE/19). The position of the monks' range to the east is indicated by another area of moundiness. Two parallel robber trenches some 15m apart in the mound's surface east of the cloister probably indicate the north and south walls of the chapter house. A clear, open area at a lower level immediately east of the south end of the range is a yard enclosed by a wall fronting the main abbey drain to the south and by another north-south building range down its east side. Further buildings and yards lie to the east again; a shallow channel running north-east towards the moat is probably a drain associated with them. The position of the south claustral range is likewise identifiable as a general area of `height' but in this case lower than that of the ranges to either side. Low banks that run away south either side of the modern track are probably wall-lines, indicating that the track is running lengthwise through the site of the monks' refectory which in Cistercian monasteries normally lay at right angles to the south range. Clear areas at a lower level to either side are open yards.
The precinct was surveyed at 1:1000 scale by RCHME. See archive in NMR for full details and complete earthwork description. (10)
Kirkstead Abbey has also been mapped at 1:10,000 scale as part of the RCHME: Lincolnshire NMP. (Morph No. LI.468.2.1-16)
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