Dore Abbey is many things
Parish Church
Worship and prayer have been the lifeblood of the Abbey for over 800 years, and they continue to provide the rhythms for our life today through silence, music, poetry and song.
Quiet Days, retreats, a Quiet Garden and more are in the pipeline for development in the next few years as part of “Outdore”.
We are delighted to have been awarded the bronze Eco Church award from A Rocha, and we are working towards silver.
Recent recordings from Dore Abbey
Abbeydore Deanery
Dore Abbey is part of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford - and the local group of churches take their name from the village that formed round the Abbey.
Ancient Monument
Dore Abbey was established in the ‘Golden Valley’ of south-west Hereford in 1147 and was colonised by monks from Morimond Abbey in the Champagne region of north-eastern France. When the monks arrived from Morimond, they found themselves on the border lordship of Ewyas Harold, owned by Robert Fitz Harold of Ewyas, who became the first patron of Dore.
In 1321 Abbot Richard, a renowned scholar, was given a relic of the Holy Cross by William de Gradisson, and it was said that crowds visited the abbey to see this. Lady Matilda de Bohun’s tomb (1318) was also a focal point of the abbey as it was thought to have had the power of healing. Despite these attractions the house was never a particularly rich one, and its later history witnessed a series of financial difficulties, coupled with a collapse in internal discipline. In the survey of 1535 the net annual income was valued at £101 and the house was dissolved a year later.
In 1633 the owner, Viscount Scudamore, decided to restore what was left of the abbey church and convert it for use as the local parish church. A tower was added, the interior refurbished with carved oak, a fine Renaissance screen inserted, and many windows replaced with seventeenth-century stained glass.
By the end of the nineteenth century the church was again in need of attention, and the repairs were carried out by Roland Paul in 1901-09. The medieval presbytery is one of the finest Cistercian survivals in the west of Britain, and the interior dates from the restoration of the church in the early 1630s. The remains comprise the crossing and the liturgical east end of the monastic church, and there are still slight traces of the nave, and fragments of the claustral buildings.
A little history
From the time of St Augustine's mission to re-establish Christianity in AD 597 to the reign of Henry VIII, monasticism formed an important facet of both religious and secular life in the British Isles. Settlements of religious communities, including monasteries, were built to house communities of monks, canons (priests), and sometimes lay-brothers, living a common life of religious observance under some form of systematic discipline.
It is estimated from documentary evidence that over 700 monasteries were founded in England. These ranged in size from major communities with several hundred members to tiny establishments with a handful of brethren. They belonged to a wide variety of different religious orders, each with its own philosophy. As a result, they vary considerably in the detail of their appearance and layout, although all possess the basic elements of church, domestic accommodation for the community, and work buildings.
Monasteries were inextricably woven into the fabric of medieval society, acting not only as centres of worship, learning and charity, but also, because of the vast landholdings of some orders, as centres of immense wealth and political influence. They were established in all parts of England, some in towns and others in the remotest of areas.
Many monasteries acted as the foci of wide networks including parish churches, almshouses, hospitals, farming estates and tenant villages. Some 75 of these religious houses belonged to the Cistercian order founded by St Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th century. The Cistercians - or "white monks", on account of their undyed habits - led a harsher life than earlier monastic orders, believing in the virtue of a life of austerity, prayer and manual labour.
Seeking seclusion, they founded their houses in wild and remote areas where they undertook major land improvement projects. Their communities were often very large and included many lay brethren who acted as ploughmen, dairymen, shepherds, carpenters and masons. The Cistercians' skills as farmers eventually made the order one of the richest and most influential. They were especially successful in the rural north of England where they concentrated on sheep farming.
The Cistercians made a major contribution to many facets of medieval life and all of their monasteries which exhibit significant surviving archaeological remains are worthy of protection.
Dore's position on a marginal site in the Welsh Marches reflects the ideology and aspirations recorded in statutes and histories of the mid-12th century Cistercian order. Comparison between the written record and the physical remains will contribute to a wider understanding of an order at its zenith.
Although Cistercian monasteries conformed in general to a standard architectural plan and the monks lived by a strict code of statutes governing many aspects of their lives, the architecture of individual houses developed over the centuries of their occupation. The part excavations of Roland Paul have confirmed that whilst Dore conformed to the general Cistercian plan, it also retained its own individual elements of style and design. The octagonal chapter house and other architectural details suggest an influence from the West Country school of builders, those involved in the construction of the great religious buildings such as Wells Cathedral and Glastonbury Abbey.
Dore Abbey is the only Cistercian house in England founded directly from the great Cistercian House of Morimond, the fifth senior house of the order, whose daughter houses lay largely in central and eastern Europe. The buildings at Dore will provide insight into both the influence of local non-Cistercian trends in architecture and of the great European monasteries within the traditions of English Cistercian building and decoration.
The remarkable survival of the east end of the monastic church, now the parish church, is the only occurrence of a Cistercian church still in ecclesiastical use in England. The work of the 19th century restorers is remarkably well understood, and the records of Roland Paul provide an opportunity to study the development of a monastic building over 900 years. Traces of painted plaster work discovered within the church have already provided one of the more detailed insights into the decorative schemes within a Cistercian church, similar survivals upon buried architectural fragments would further enhance our knowledge.
The survival of the monastic cemetery will be expected to provide a rare opportunity to examine the skeletal remains of a discrete medieval community providing insight into living conditions, diet, health and funerary practices. The low lying, damp position of the mill, leats and fishponds would suggest a good level of survival of organic remains within the monastic precinct. This environmental evidence will provide information about the natural and climatic environment and also the economic development of the house.
The monument includes the earthwork and buried remains of the claustral buildings and parts of the outer court and wider precinct of the Cistercian abbey at Dore, as well as the standing remains of the nave of the abbey church and the chapter house. The abbey is located in the steep sided valley, just above the flood plain of the River Dore, and is sited close to the Roman road which ran from Abergavenny to Kenchester.
Dore Abbey was founded by Robert Fitz Harold of Ewyas about 1147. The main complex of conventual buildings was erected between the mid-12th century and 1210 with the church aligned south east to north west and the cloister sited to the north of the church rather than on the more usual southern side. This was most probably due to the geographic restrictions of the site in a steep sided valley which prevented the construction of the cloisters to the south.
The Abbey was suppressed in 1536 and the buildings rapidly fell into ruins. The church was restored in 1633 for John Viscount Scudamore. Between 1895- 1904, as part of further restorations, Roland Paul excavated and made measured drawings of the remains of the monastic site. The excavations in the body of the nave and in parts of the claustral range and the precinct clarified the layout of the monastery and confirmed its overall compliance with the standard Cistercian plan found in monasteries of the order throughout Europe.
The chancel of the monastic church forms the extant parish church of the village of Abbeydore. The church, which is a Grade I Listed Building and which remains in use, is excluded from the scheduling, although the ground beneath it is included. Approximately 17 chest tombs, which are Listed Grade II and located within the churchyard, are also excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath them is included. The whole of the churchyard is included in the scheduling except for an area to the north west where more recent burials occur. The nave of the monastic church was largely demolished above ground level, and the area is now occupied by the graveyard of the present parish church. Two pillars of the nave immediately north west of the crossing, the arch of the first bay of the southern arcade of the nave, now standing in the modern graveyard, and the north wall, including the lay brothers day entrance into the nave of the monastic church survive. The full extent of the nave and the position of the Galilee porch are clearly evident as low earthwork banks and platforms.
Safeguarding
The parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity. Abbeydore, is committed to the safeguarding of children, young people and adults. We follow the House of Bishops guidance and policies and have our own Parish Safeguarding Officer(s), PSOs. The Diocese of Hereford’s safeguarding pages contain vital links and information including contacts for the Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor (DSA) Mandy McPhee (07875 757396) who advise our PSOs. If you are concerned that a child or adult has been harmed or may be at risk of harm please contact the DSA. If you have immediate concerns about the safety of someone, please contact the police (999)
For any non-urgent safeguarding enquiries or in the event of Mandy being unavailable please contact the Diocesan Office on 01432 373300
In situations of immediate risk, phone the police on 999