Author name: Richard Clarke

At the end of the blog published on 12th February I promised a quote which summarises Gilyard-Beer’s overview (s.p.b.s) of monastic history, ‘Throughout the whole of its history there has been a tendency for monasticism to fall away from its primitive zeal and austerity, giving rise to one attempt after another within the monastic body

The above picture is an aerial photo. of most of Barrow on Humber village as shown on the cover of ‘John Harrison’s Village’, published by Barrow W.E.A. branch, 1999. All the monastic sites in Hull and the East Riding are products of the post-Norman Conquest waves of monastic revival. This is not to state that

It bothered me somewhat that although Claire Cross included the site at Kirkham on her map, s.p.b., I didn’t think it was in the East Riding. The confusion arises because that area has changed Ridings on the occasion of boundary changes. Kirkham is a significant site as it retains considerable standing ruins of the gatehouse

(text continued from previous blog) Yedingham (the village being in the East Riding but the site of the priory being across the River Derwent and just into North Yorkshire). These five nunnery sites followed the Benedictine Order whereas the sixth nunnery site in East Yorkshire at Swine in Holderness followed the Cistercian Order. The site

The history of monasteries, nunneries and friaries, and of the land they controlled and farmed, is an important element in landscape history as, although it seems distant from modern life, it can bring to light issues of building management, land management and, indeed, people management that can have parallels in 21st century life. Two important

The point about today’s and yesterday’s photos is that they are of a 500 sq. yard allotment I have recently taken-on on Clough Road allotment site. Last year I worked a small allotment on the same site and got the little plots winter dug ready for spring planting. However, this one became available and I