About twenty five minutes away from us along the coast here in Hampshire are the ruins of Netley Abbey, a place we visited late in the year in 2011, taking advantage of some bright, dry weather.
Netley Abbey is a very well-preserved medieval monastery, owing this feat mainly to the fact that nothing very much of historical interest ever really took place there. Prior to Henry VIII going off on one with the church (because we all have the tendency to mould religions to our own prejudices but he had the power to do it on a larger scale than most), the abbey’s history was more-or-less simply to house an order of Cistercian monks in the early thirteenth century who decided Beaulieu Abbey wasn’t for them anymore and had the backing of the Bishop of Winchester to do that shortly before his death. The abbey never truly prospered but it gained a reputation for good hospitality and friendly relations with locals and those travelling to the area by the nearby sea; so much so, in fact, that it almost bankrupted itself on occasion.
After Henry VIII’s well-known spat, Netley Abbey was sold to the 1st Marquess of Winchester, a politician, converted to a country house, and remained that way until the eighteenth century when it finally started to fall into a state of disrepair.
No battles to mention of, no significant fires gutting it… almost unheard of with medieval ruins in England. The end result though is a lovely set of grounds with some impressive stone walls and remains of arched doors and windows in gothic architectural style.
I do like a nice cloister with vaulted ceilings in a church. During the abbey’s use this would have been where the monks spent the majority of their time, studying, copying manuscripts, doing crosswords, chatting about girls, playing a bit of Dungeons and Dragons.
If you visit Netley Abbey then try to imagine the interior walls of the ruins being coated in white with maroon accents. It was all the rage at the time.
Because of the time of the year that we visited, the grounds of Netley Abbey hosted an abundance of fungus. I do like looking at mushrooms or toadstools (I don’t know what the difference is between them and am not overly inclined to find out right now; I’ll just assume if a toad isn’t sitting on one then it’s a mushroom). Eating mushrooms, though. Good grief, no. It tastes like a fungus co-operative got into the manufacturing business and started producing cardboard or door stops from its own dead kin in some sort of horrific microbiological Soylent Green homage. Why does anyone get any pleasure out of eating this?
With the right weather, and if you like medieval ruins, then Netley Abbey is a lovely place to look around, full of little details to catch the eye.
Very close to Netley Abbey and well worth a look around to is the Royal Victoria Country Park And Hospital Chapel.