Hailes Abbey

Today's site seeing took us out to Stanton where we saw what was left of Hailes Abbey.

There was a museum of harvested artifacts that originated from the abbey.

"Medieval and later keys made of iron. Some were plated with bronze and finely decorated. The small key was for a casket."

TOOLS: "The building of Hailes Abbey required the service of masons, carpenters, smiths, plumbers, glaziers, and painters. Some of their equipment has survived and is shown here. These tools are all medieval, and must have been lost or thrown away during building operations."

These vaulting bosses were found in the Chapter House of the Abbey when it was excavated in 1899. The second boss shows Christ wrestling the devil, depicted as Samson and the lion.

The Chapter House is where the Monks would meet after mass to listen to readings from the Rule of St. Benedict. The Rule reminded them of their duty to the community as well as to God. After the reading, monks prostrated themselves on the ground to profess their faults and receive punishment. This could be a penance such as fasting, but sometimes they were beaten.

The monks followed a strict daily timetable. They rose between 1:00 and 2:30 AM for their first service of the day, and returned to bed between 6:30 and 8:15 PM. Below is a diagram showing how the monks were required to spend their time.

We learned several fun facts about the abbey and the lives of the monks that lived there. After touring the grounds of the abbey we went to a near by graveyard to see some VERY old graves.

The oldest grave we found that we could read dated back to 1856. Since we happened to be next to the town called Toddington, we looked for Todd names but didn't find any.