Start today's forgotten corner by looking at
THIS entry in Bookfinder. I have a First Edition published by Macmillan in new condition that cost me £40. You'll note that these prices go up to £168. Why so rare and expensive? It's the only book that I know that covers the subject and Platt was a specialist.
I got it out yesterday on a whim and started to re-read it. Something popped out at me that hadn't attracted my attention before, a consequence of the way my thinking has advanced since I first read it.
As you know the advent of the Cistercians in Barlick has always been one of my targets enhanced by the fact we have evidence from Kirkstall Abbey history that they demolished the Saxon church in Barlick during their short stay. We also know from the same source that when they left they established a grange in Barlick, we think at Calf Hall. A grange is a holding detached from the main abbey, controlled by the abbey cellarer, staffed usually by Lay Brothers and local labour and could be let out to a tenant farmer. Its function was to supply the abbey with food or an income. In some cases there were resident monks and in others they were used as lodgings for visiting clergy or as a sort of vacation destination for monks from the abbey who deserved a rest or respite.
The thing that jumped out at me was Platt's assertion (and evidence) that in 1152 the Mother Abbey at Citeaux issued a rule that no grange should be more than a day's journey from the abbey it served.
1152 is a significant date. This the year the Barlick monks decamped to Kirkstall. It is also the date that Bracewell Church was given to Kirkstall Abbey by the Tempests. It's reasonable to suppose that the grange in Barlick came into existence in the same year to continue the monk's hold on the Manor.
Barlick is obviously more than a day's journey from Leeds but they must have had a dispensation to ignore the new rule from Citeaux. The reason for this rule was that the mother abbey was not to be allowed to become a rival foundation and was usually not allowed to have a chapel. If it had an oratory it wasn't allowed to dispense the Host at Mass. Therefore the monks (if any) had to travel to Leeds once a week. This obviously couldn't happen but the nearest church was at Bracewell.
Then we have the building of Gill church eight years later in 1160.
That's as far as I have got at the moment but I have a feeling in my water that there is a connection buried in here and I need to ferret it out if possible.
This quite definitely a forgotten corner!
Kirkstall Abbey at Leeds