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Glastonbury Abbey

1539 disestablishments in England7th-century establishments in EnglandAnglican pilgrimage sitesAnglo-Saxon monastic housesBenedictine monasteries in England
Catholic pilgrimage sitesChristian monasteries established in the 8th centuryChurch ruins in EnglandChurches in SomersetGlastonburyGrade II* listed buildings in Mendip DistrictGrade II* listed ruinsGrade I listed buildings in Mendip DistrictGrade I listed monasteriesJoseph of ArimatheaLiving museums in EnglandLocations associated with Arthurian legendMonasteries dissolved under the English ReformationMonasteries in SomersetMuseums in SomersetReligious museums in EnglandRuined abbeys and monasteriesRuins in SomersetScheduled monuments in Mendip DistrictTourist attractions in SomersetUse British English from January 2013
Glastonbury Abbey church view from east
Glastonbury Abbey church view from east

Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction. The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It was destroyed by a major fire in 1184, but subsequently rebuilt and by the 14th century was one of the richest and most powerful monasteries in England. The abbey controlled large tracts of the surrounding land and was instrumental in major drainage projects on the Somerset Levels. The abbey was suppressed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII of England. The last abbot, Richard Whiting (Whyting), was hanged, drawn and quartered as a traitor on Glastonbury Tor in 1539. From at least the 12th century the Glastonbury area has been associated with the legend of King Arthur, a connection promoted by medieval monks who asserted that Glastonbury was Avalon. Christian legends have claimed that the abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea in the 1st century.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Glastonbury Abbey (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Glastonbury Abbey
Silver Street,

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Wikipedia: Glastonbury AbbeyContinue reading on Wikipedia

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Latitude Longitude
N 51.145555555556 ° E -2.7144444444444 °
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Glastonbury Abbey

Silver Street
BA6 8BT
England, United Kingdom
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Glastonbury Abbey church view from east
Glastonbury Abbey church view from east
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Abbot's Kitchen, Glastonbury
Abbot's Kitchen, Glastonbury

The Abbot's Kitchen is a mediaeval octagonal building that served as the kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. It is a Grade I listed building. The abbot's kitchen has been described as "one of the best preserved medieval kitchens in Europe". The stone-built construction dates from the 14th century and is one of a very few surviving mediaeval kitchens in the world.Historically, the Abbot of Glastonbury lived well, as demonstrated by the abbot's kitchen, with four large fireplaces at its corners. The kitchen was part of the opulent abbot's house, begun under Abbot John de Breynton (1334–1342). It is one of the best preserved medieval kitchens in Europe and the only substantial monastic building surviving at Glastonbury Abbey. The abbot's kitchen has been the only building at Glastonbury Abbey to survive intact. Later it was used as a Quaker meeting house.The building is supported by curved buttresses on each side leading up to a cornice with grotesque gargoyles. Inside are four large arched fireplaces with smoke outlets above them, with another outlet in the centre of the pyramidal roof. The building is designed so that hot air from the cooking fires would have risen up to the top of the building and escaped, whilst cooler air came from openings lower down and sunk into the kitchen, cooling it.The kitchen was attached to the 80 feet (24 m) high abbot's hall, although only one small section of its wall remains. The architect Augustus Pugin surveyed and recorded the building in the 1830s. The Abbot's Kitchen was again surveyed and conserved in 2013, reopening in 2014.

Glastonbury
Glastonbury

Glastonbury (, UK also ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, 23 miles (37 km) south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury is less than 1 mile (2 km) across the River Brue from Street, which is now larger than Glastonbury. Evidence from timber trackways such as the Sweet Track show that the town has been inhabited since Neolithic times. Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, close to the old course of the River Brue and Sharpham Park approximately 2 miles (3 km) west of Glastonbury, that dates back to the Bronze Age. Centwine was the first Saxon patron of Glastonbury Abbey, which dominated the town for the next 700 years. One of the most important abbeys in England, it was the site of Edmund Ironside's coronation as King of England in 1016. Many of the oldest surviving buildings in the town, including the Tribunal, George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn and the Somerset Rural Life Museum, which is based at the site of a 14th-century abbey manor barn, often referred to as a tithe barn, are associated with the abbey. The Church of St John the Baptist dates from the 15th century. The town became a centre for commerce, which led to the construction of the market cross, Glastonbury Canal and the Glastonbury and Street railway station, the largest station on the original Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway. The Brue Valley Living Landscape is a conservation project managed by the Somerset Wildlife Trust and nearby is the Ham Wall National Nature Reserve. Glastonbury has been described as having a New Age community and possibly being where New Age beliefs originated at the turn of the twentieth century. It is notable for myths and legends often related to Glastonbury Tor, concerning Joseph of Arimathea, the Holy Grail and King Arthur. Joseph is said to have arrived in Glastonbury and stuck his staff into the ground, when it flowered miraculously into the Glastonbury Thorn. The presence of a landscape zodiac around the town has been suggested but no evidence has been discovered. The Glastonbury Festival, held in the nearby village of Pilton, takes its name from the town.

Somerset Rural Life Museum
Somerset Rural Life Museum

The Somerset Rural Life Museum is situated in Glastonbury, Somerset, UK. It is a museum of the social and agricultural history of Somerset, housed in buildings surrounding a 14th-century barn once belonging to Glastonbury Abbey. It was used for the storage of arable produce, particularly wheat and rye, from the abbey's home farm of approximately 524 acres (2.12 km2). It is not believed to have stored produce offered as tithe payments and is therefore referred to as an abbey barn rather than a tithe barn. Threshing and winnowing would also have been carried out in the barn. The barn which was built from local 'shelly' limestone, with thick timbers supporting the stone tiling of the roof. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building, and is a Scheduled Ancient Monument. In 2011 the 14 feet (4.3 m) high doors of the barn were replaced by local craftsmen using materials and traditional techniques and materials to a design based on The Bishop's Eye in Wells.After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 the barn was given to the Duke of Somerset. By the early 20th century it was being used as a farm store by the Mapstone family. In 1974 they donated it to Somerset County Council and between 1976 and 1978 underwent restoration. It was also used as the location for the pistol duel in Stanley Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon", released in 1975.The barn and courtyard contain displays of farm machinery from the Victorian or early 20th Century period. Other exhibits show local crafts, including willow coppicing, mud horse fishing on the flats of Bridgwater Bay, peat digging on the Somerset Levels, and the production of milk, cheese, and cider. In reconstructed rooms detailing domestic life in the nearby village of Butleigh, the story of one farm worker, John Hodges, is told from cradle to grave. Outside, there is a beehive and rare breeds of poultry and sheep, in the cider apple orchard. Regular craft demonstrations and talks on farming are held, as are activities for children and families. There is a shop, tea room, car park and disabled access. The shop is run by the Friends of the Somerset Rural Life Museum.