Held at: | Private collection |
Reference: | RS/CH |
Source: | Original Photographs |
Title: | Digital Archive: Hillaby Collection Photographs of Craswall Priory Landscapes |
Place name: | Craswall |
Date: | 2015 |
Description:
At some 1,240ft, Craswall is by far the highest of all English monastic sites and is overlooked by the Welsh frontier along Hay Bluff, rising to 2,200ft. The life at Craswall took austerity to the limits of human endurance. Grandmontine ‘cells’ were to be sited in solitary places but never too far from a thoroughfare, for the brethren were dependent upon alms for their livelihood, being barred from owning land outside the actual boundaries of the monastery. In addition, they had always to seek the natural enclosure afforded by woodland areas.
The parent house at Grandmont was described c1184 by Prior Gérard Ithier as
‘stern and very cold, infertile and rocky, misty and exposed to the winds. The water is colder and worse than in other places, for it produces sickness instead of health. The mountain abounds in great stones for building, in streams and sand, but there is scarcely any timber for building. The land around the monastery scarcely ever suffices to provide necessaries, for the soil is so infertile, sterile and barren … The place which was chosen by God is a solitude for penitence and religion, and those who dwell there lead a hard life.’
The site chosen by Walter de Lacy to found a Grandmontine priory offered a not dissimilar environment at Craswall.
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Observations:
The poor grassland around the Priory was probably scrub woodland at the time of its foundation, in line with the precepts of the Order to seek secluded sites.
Ref: rs_cra_0207