Bewerley grange, Nidderdale

The threat of wolves
The lay-brothers and servants of the abbey's granges in Nidderdale used bows and arrows and kept mastiffs to guard against the threat of wolves. However, it was stipulated that they should only use these weapons within the grange enclosure, and whilst the mastiffs might roam at night they should be tied up during the day.

[Jennings, Yorkshire Monasteries, p. 84].

Fountains' grange at Bewerley in Nidderdale, seems to have operated as an estate centre for the region. It supported agriculture and industry, working lead mines at Greenhow Hill and Coldstones. The important sheep house of Moor House was associated with Bewerley and stood to the west of the grange.(12) Flocks that wintered at Bewerley from Michaelmas to St Helenmas Day (3 May) grazed at Kilnsey during the summer months. Michaelmas was a rather festive occasion in Nidderdale, for the keepers and their families gathered by the side of the road at Toft Gate, to watch and welcome the sheep coming over the hill from Craven, for their wintering in Nidderdale.(13)

Bewerley functioned as an important centre for dairy farming at Fountains and indeed the region as a whole, particularly in the later Middle Ages when cattle outnumber sheep.(14) Each Whitsun the old cattle that were to be slaughtered at the abbey in autumn were brought to Bewerley for their last taste of summer. (15)

Bewerley was also an important stopping off point for Fountains' abbots and monastic officials. Abbot Greenwell [1442-71] stayed here in May 1454 en route to the Wapentake Court of Craven. On this occasion he was provided for by the wife of Thomas Darnbrooke, the tenant of Bewerley, who requested only a fraction of the required payment for their entertainment, taking 13d of the 3s 1d spent, and was later recompensed for her generosity, for when the corn tithes were later distributed, she received from the community an extra two bushels of oats to replenish her supplies.(16)

Stone with Huby's initials
© Cistercians in Yorkshire
<click to enlarge>

Bewerley's importance to the community as a hospice is indicated by the survival of a stone chapel here, built by Abbot Marmaduke Huby in the late fifteenth / early sixteenth century. Huby's initials can still be seen on the east wall. A stone chapel was also built by Huby on Brimham grange, which was a favoured retreat of the abbots of Fountains who enjoyed hunting here in the later Middle Ages. Stones from the chapel, which bear Huby's initials, are scattered in the fields of the former grange site.(17) Chapels were not normally built for the lay-brothers or keepers, and the fact that these were constructed at Bewerley and Brimham suggests that they were visited regularly by the monastic community.