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A B B E Y S

    FOUNTAINS ABBEY- hidden in the remote valley of the River Skell, about twenty miles west of Rievaulx, is its daughter abbey, Fountains. It was described as `a place more fitted for wild beasts than men'.
 

     

Rievaulx Abbey was the most important Cistercian abbey in England. It was founded in 1132 by Bernard of Clairvaulx, who was the Abbot of a monastery in France. The Cistercians were an order which preached a simple, ascetic life dedicated to God. They wore white habits, were forbidden luxuries like underwear, and were required to attend several daily services from the early morning to late night. 
 
     Hexham is a small market town half way between Newcastle (on the East coast) and Carlisle (on the West coast). It stands at a bridging point of the River Tyne. A monastery was founded there by St Wilfrid in about AD670; it became a Cathedral in AD678. The original building was destroyed by the invading Danes, but rebuilt by the Normans who re-founded it as an abbey. Although the abbey was dissolved during the Reformation in 1537, the abbey church remains and is Hexham's principal place of worship. 
 
     Westminster Abbey was originally founded by King Edward the Confessor and dedicated in 1066 - the year at the end of which England had been conquered by the Normans. In those days it was surrounded by fields, in the countryside West of London. Today, it is more or less in the centre of a gigantically expanded modern London. It stands opposite the Palace of Westminster (otherwise known as the Houses of Parliament), and is the site for all great ceremonial state religious occasions such as coronations. Many of Britain's most famous people are buried in the Abbey