Good fun can be had searching for the ruins of the 12th
century St Mary’s Abbey, in the Abbey Fields, Kenilworth, close to St Nicholas’
Church; a sort of archaeological hide and seek.
Plaques have been placed around the ruins indicating whereabouts in the abbey you are standing and what that part of the ruin would have been used for, such as the storerooms, the cloisters or the chancel. The plaques also show which parts of the ruins are visible above ground and gives those gifted with good imagination an impression of what the abbey would have looked like.
Plaques have been placed around the ruins indicating whereabouts in the abbey you are standing and what that part of the ruin would have been used for, such as the storerooms, the cloisters or the chancel. The plaques also show which parts of the ruins are visible above ground and gives those gifted with good imagination an impression of what the abbey would have looked like.
At the entrances to the fields and outside
the barn, which is still standing and houses a small museum, are informative
boards including a drawing of the Abbey as it may have looked. Some parts of the ruins are easy to work out, such as the barn and the gatehouse, while others are only patterns of remaining walls or steps but they are still interesting to discover. You can find the plaques on the ruin walls
and set into the grass but they take some finding as they are scattered across
the whole site. The plan indicates all
of the parts of the abbey, from which you can calculate how many plaques there
are approximately where they will be. Once you have found a couple you can work out the clues to the next , and to make it more of a challenge, there is a mistake if you can spot
it - but I will leave that for you to discover for yourselves.
The barn museum opens
on Sunday afternoons during the summer months and is staffed by local
volunteers, who can provide more information about the Abbey of St Mary.
Thanks to the Kenilworth
History and Archaeology Society for their work
The Kenilworth Archaeological Society gave a very interesting tour of the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey today, (Saturday 28th July) starting off at 3:00pm from the Barn and visiting the remains of the Abbey while providing an informative commentary on various aspects of life for the canons , the architecture and the history. Plenty of information was provided by various members of the society including translations from Latin texts and the locations of a variety of artefacts from the Abbey.
ReplyDeleteThe barn museum is also worthy of a visit as it has a wealth of historical information about Kenilworth, along with old photographs that for some who are familiar with the town will find of interest.