by Dave Franklin

Created on: December 29, 2006   Last Updated: April 17, 2007

Tintern Abbey

Admiring stranger, that with lingering feet,
Enchained by wonder, pauses on this green;
Where thy enraptured sight the dark woods meet,
Ah! rest awhile and contemplate the scene.
These hoary pillars clasped by ivy round,
This hallowed floor by holy footsteps trod,
The mouldering choir by spreading moss embrowned
Where fasting saints devoutly hymned their God.

So wrote Edmund Gardner towards the end of the eighteenth century and this passionate flow of words sits as a wonderful introduction to the beauty of Tintern Abbey and the landscape around. Britain seems to be a land of churches and monastic buildings and due to the politics of the Reformation, many of these have been left in ruins. But if you think that such sites are drab piles of masonry then Tintern Abbey will make you think again.

Cistercian monks originally founded Tintern Abbey in 1131 AD, during the reign of Henry I. Between 1270 and 1301 the Abbey was expanded and by the end of the rebuilding, around four hundred monks lived in the complex. The Black Death arrived in 1349 and affected Abbey life badly but it continued to operate until 1536. In that year the Abbey was part of the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. And within a few years the lead was stripped from the roof and the building began to decay. The Abbey then became a source of building stone and only in the eighteenth century was any interest shown in the ruin. Around 1760 the site was cleaned up and visitors to the Wye Valley began to be entranced with the beauty of the site and surroundings. So today we find a site that is a combination of ruin and restoration that combines to make the picturesque views that caused Gardner and his more famous colleague, William Wordsworth, to write such emotive descriptions about it.

The Abbey and the village of Tintern that it stands in are easily arrived at by car. Being situated just off of the A466 about four miles north of the town of Chepstow, Monmouthshire means that it is not far from the M4 making an easy connection with Britain's motorway system and thus making the journey easily undertaken from almost anywhere in the country. Even the approach to the location is wonderful, a taste of the delights to come. The road winds down the wooded hillside as it drops away to the flood plain of the River Wye and suddenly in front of you is a lovely village that would look at home on the lid of a chocolate box and nestled on the edge are the statuesque remains of the Abbey.

If you are

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