Woolly says – It had been a busy weekend for our tipi’s but with the guests having departed and the rebuilding of the site completed I was looking forward to visiting a small abbey that had caught my beady eye.

Dore Abbey was a former Cistercian abbey in the village of Abbey Dore in the Golden Valley, Herefordshire. With the skies drizzling away we headed along the green lanes of Herefordshire finally seeing the abbey as we rounded a bend, it didn’t look as big as I had hoped but it looked lovely all the same. Having driven past, turned round and driven past again whilst looking for parking, Jo finally resorted to squeezing the car into a small area under a tree on the roadside. We released barking boy from the vehicle and headed through the 17^th century porch and into the grounds.

The abbey was founded in 1147 by Robert fitzHarold of Ewyas, the Lord of Ewyas Harold, possibly on the site of an earlier wooden monastic building of which no traces remain. Construction of the buildings in local sandstone began around 1175, and continued through the time of the first three abbots. During the early 13th century the abbey expanded its land holdings, particularly through the acquisition of good quality farmland in the area granted to them by King John in 1216. This enabled the abbey to become wealthy, especially through the sale of wool, and as a result the abbey was largely rebuilt in the Early English style until it was then dissolved on 1^st March 1537 on Henry VIII’s orders.

We ambled through the graveyard looking out across the farmland and allowing Alfie the Dog to get his sniffs in. To the side of the building we could see bricked up doorways where the chapter house would have once been connected to the main building.

Having completed the exterior we headed inside for our eyes to feast upon the huge walls with their painted texts dating from 1630 to 1710, the scriptures had been used as teaching aids and were in remarkable condition.

The rare site of a musicians gallery beautifully carved in oak made a wonderful focal feature, I paused to consider what instruments they might have played and the lovely sound that the high ceilings would have provided.

A small chapel stood in the one corner

An area known as the  ambulatory led us through a cross vaulted ceiling and towards rear of the building where we found memorials to the knights of old and all manner of bosses and carvings that had been placed there for safe keeping.

We arrived back at the huge oak screen with its intricate carvings and entered the presbytery with its 17^th century wooden pews and pulpit.

The high vaulted ceiling was high above us and even with zoom on the camera we ere unable to pick out the wooden carvings that graced the higher areas.

We sat for a while admiring the fine stained glass windows which dated back to 1634.

 And the massive arches and arched windows that allowed light to through the abbey.

The alter was made up of a huge block of stone once used as a salting block on a nearby farm. To the left was a worn effigy thought to be John le Breton the Bishop of Hereford between 1269 and 1275.

To the rear of the alter was the best find yet, the 13^th century tiled floors with the greens, reds, browns and yellows still gleaming after all these years.

As we walked back to the main door I realised that I had been walking across a multitude of floor memorials so we retraced our steps keeping our eyes downwards as we found more and more, the words worn away after the many feet that had stepped on them.

We paused at the doorway to read about the latest renovation work that the trusties were undertaking to keep the fabulous building from decline and had to take our hats off to them for what they has so far achieved.

With tummies rumbling we headed back through the graveyard with our thoughts firmly fixed on a late lunch.