Easby Abbey Mill is a historic building in Easby, a village near Richmond, North Yorkshire, in England. Easby Abbey had a watermill constructed in the mid-12th century, on a site northwest of the abbey buildings. It had a mill race linked to the River Swale. Rebuilt around 1800, the mill retained the original foundations, and included a residence for the miller.
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86 m
The Easby Cross is an Anglo-Saxon sandstone standing cross from 800–820, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. It originally came from Easby near Richmond in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, where a plaster replica is kept in the church. Easby was then in the Kingdom of Northumbria. The width of the long faces at the bottom of the lowest fragment is 31 cm, with a depth of 18 cm, and the whole cross would originally have been up to 3 metres high.
Four fragments of the cross survive, which have been fitted into a reconstruction in the museum. Three of these were used, probably in the late 12th century, in the rebuilding of St Agatha's Church, Easby, from where they were recovered in the 20th century. All had one face visible in the wall surface; two were on exterior faces of the church, and one on the interior. The fragment with Christ in Majesty on the main face was recovered from a field wall nearby before 1869, and kept by the landowner until sold to the V&A in 1931. An article about the cross was published by the V&A's Margaret Longhurst the same year in Archaeologia.
Both types of reuse are very typical of the fate of broken crosses. Some of the sections show that repairs had already been made with molten lead before the cross was broken up, so it may have been unstable or otherwise damaged. Unusually for Anglo-Saxon crosses, the stone is not local: "the medium-grained deltaic sandstone matches stone traditionally produced in the Aislaby quarries of Eskdale near Whitby", which are nearly 60 miles away. This quarry had been used for the 7th-century Whitby Abbey and other sculptures in Yorkshire; the stone sections could have been transported by pack horse, perhaps most likely after carving, when they would weigh less.
The front face is carved with figurative reliefs. Those that survive show Christ in Majesty with two angels, and below that panel the halo of a figure now lost. Below the Christ panel there were three pyramidal groups of haloed head and shoulder reliefs of apostles in arched compartments. There were two groups of three and one of six, but the face of the topmost figure is now missing, and a modern filler section has been inserted. The cross head is missing its arms, which extended to about 90 cm across. The front face shows a bust of Christ blessing and holding a book, and the rear another Christ in Majesty. The style of the figures has been related to contemporary continental Carolingian art, "underlying the apparent naturalism, there is a carefully planned logic to the overlapping elements which is as rigidly defined as an interlace sequence". The layout and appearance of the apostle's heads has also been compared to a Byzantine row of heads around an archivolt from a church in Constantinople of the 6th–7th centuries.
The rear face contains a continuous vine scroll "inhabited" with beasts, an early appearance of this motif in Anglo-Saxon art. The scroll is the type known as "medallion scroll". Ernst Kitzinger thought the form of the scroll related to early Carolingian art, though it may have been derived more from Late Antique examples. The two much narrower side faces contain panels of interlace and vine scroll that alternate apparently rather randomly, as the two sides do not match. The corners have rope-work running the whole length of the faces, which the modern filler sections imitate.
The cross dates from the period when Alcuin of York and other Anglo-Saxons held important positions in the court of Charlemagne, and remained in contact with the Northumbrian monasteries. It is one of the finest surviving Anglo-Saxon crosses, and the best of a group of Northumbrian crosses including those from Otley, with similar busts of apostles or saints in arched compartments, Rothbury, Ilkley and Lowther. It has similarities to the earlier Ruthwell Cross and Bewcastle Cross, from western Northumbria, which are larger and have more ambitious decorative programmes, but also mix interlace with inhabited vine-scrolls. With an approximate date of 800–820, the cross was erected just as the golden age of Northumbrian art was coming to an end with the devastating Viking raids which began with the attack on Lindisfarne in 793.
The cross is now displayed at the start of the recently re-arranged Medieval galleries.
86 m
Easby Abbey, or the Abbey of St Agatha, is a ruined Premonstratensian abbey on the eastern bank of the River Swale on the outskirts of Richmond in the county of North Yorkshire, England. The site is privately owned but maintained by English Heritage and can be reached by a riverside walk from Richmond Castle. Within the precinct is the still-active parish church, displaying 13th-century wall paintings.
161 m
St Agatha's Church is the parish church of Easby, a village near Richmond, North Yorkshire, in England.
The church lies immediately south of Easby Abbey. It was probably built in the 1150s, from which period the west end of the nave and south side of the chancel survive. The south side of the nave dates from about 1200, including a contemporary doorway, while the north wall of the chancel and east window are from later in the 13th century. A north transept was added in the early 14th century, and a south aisle and porch in the late 14th century. It was restored by George Gilbert Scott in 1869, and was Grade I listed in 1969.
The church is part of the parish of Easby, Skeeby, Brompton on Swale, and Bolton on Swale; part of the Richmond Deanery in the Anglican Diocese of Leeds.
The church is built of stone, and has roofs of lead, stone slate and artificial slate. It consists of a nave with a west bellcote, a south aisle, a south porch, a north transept and a chancel. At the west end, pilaster buttresses flank a lancet window with a hood mould, and the bellcote above has two lights. The porch is gabled, and has two storeys, and a buttress on the left. It contains a double-chamfered doorway with a pointed arch and a hood mould, and above it is a trefoil-headed niche. Inside, there is a barrel vault, a doorway with a pointed arch in the east wall, two openings in the west wall, and a doorway in the north wall with a chamfered surround, shafts, and a hood mould.
The door to the church may be 14th century. The font is 12th century, with a later stem. The south chapel has Perpendicular wooden screens, and a brass monument to Eleanor Bowes, dating from 1623. The chancel has a piscina and sedilia, and a stone coffin with no lid. The east window includes two pieces of 12th century stained glass, depicting Saint John and a Premonstratensian canon, and a 15th-century section depicting an angel. There is also a plaster replica of the carved stone Easby Cross, which was extracted from the wall of the church and reassembled in the 20th century, and is now in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
The church is best known for its 13th century wall paintings, which were rediscovered during the 19th century restoration, and restored by Burlinson and Grylls. Those on the north side of the nave depict characters sowing, digging, pruning and hawking; along with scenes from the Garden of Eden. On the south side are scenes from the Nativity and Passion of Jesus.
310 m
Easby Hall near Richmond in North Yorkshire, England is a building of historical significance and is listed on the English Heritage Register. Built in 1729 by the Reverend William Smith, Easby Hall became the home of many notable people for the next two and a half centuries. It now provides bed and breakfast accommodation and is a venue for special events.
317 m
Easby is a hamlet and civil parish in the county of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated near Richmond on the banks of the River Swale, approximately 12 miles north west from the county town of Northallerton. The population taken by ONS was less than 100. Population information is included in the parish of Hudswell.
In the 20th century, its purpose shifted from grinding corn to generating electricity for the village, via a turbine which operated until the 1950s. Later, it was converted into a dwelling. The mill is constructed from stone, featuring quoins, a stone slate roof, stone gable copings and shaped kneelers. It boasts two storeys and six bays. The front facade includes a doorway with a stone surround on plinths, adorned with imposts, voussoirs, a semicircular arch, and a tripartite keystone. The windows are sashes. The mill has held grade II listed status since 1986.
See also
Listed buildings in Easby, Richmondshire
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