Report on 2017 Activities

Guided Visit to Byland Abbey

The West Front of Byland Abbey

The weather on Saturday 20th May was kind to the fifteen Members who turned up at
Byland Abbey for a guided tour given by Jan Cooper:

HAHS group meeting in the Byland Abbey car park

Discussing the archaeology of the site of the Great Court
hidden under what is now the garden of the Abbey Inn.
The whole area was surveyed and partially excavated by English Heritage in 2008

The remains of the cross wall of the Great Gatehouse,
which now straddles the road to Oldstead

The west front of the Abbey Church

The Nave of the Church where there would have been a screen
marking the end of the Lay Brothers' area of worship

Central crossing of the Church with the step up to the partially-tiled Presbytery
(seen to the right)

The tiles in the south transept

North east corner of the Cloister

Our grateful thanks go to Jan for her excellent talk, so eloquently delivered.... Thanks too to husband Mike for the above photographs. See what you might have missed!!

You may be interested to know that Google Maps has extended its "StreetView" activities to Byland Abbey. In summary, they have walked all around the Abbey site with a 360-degree camera, and recorded the images. If you click on this link it will take you to Byland Abbey. In the bottom right hand corner of the screen, you will see yellow icon of a person. Click once on this, and Byland Abbey will be covered in a series of blue "walkways" that you can traverse. If you then click on the yellow person, hold down the left mouse button, and drag the person to one of the blue walkways (and release it), you will be shown the 3D view from that point. (You may choose Hide Imagery to give you a larger image). If you then hold down the left mouse button on the picture and drag it left or right, you will then scan the view from your current viewpoint. If you lower the "fingered hand" towards the ground, you will see arrows and crosses. Click on the arrow, and you will be taken in the direction of the arrow!