Creating Eden

Creating Eden Alex Conradie Fountains Abbey is a World Heritage site and magnificent to behold on a glorious day. The abbey grounds were home to Cistercian monks from 1132, spanning the 400 years to Henry VIII's Dissolution. Labouring with great determination & enterprise, Cistercian monks converted wasteland into arable land all across Yorkshire, founding the grange system. Some 44% of all known 12th century granges in Yorkshire encompassed land once barren in the 11th century. In the case of the granges of Fountains and Rievaulx, these percentages were 56% & 62% respectively. After taming the wilderness, the contributions of the Cistercians to Yorkshire's economic growth were rooted in sheep farming and the wool trade. They were organised, efficient and produced a superior fleece. Supporting a vibrant trade with Flanders, the lay brothers of Fountains Abbey may have tended 15 000 sheep with pasture land extending as far as Teesside.

In rather un-Darwinian fashion, arable land made way for pleasure gardens in the 18th century. Bored gentry created "follies" such as Studley Royal Park that stands in the shadow of the once proud abbey. Dedicated to Greek gods, deceptively solid & fanciful structures overlook spectacular gardens intent on delighting guests. The pleasure garden of Gibside exalts similar themes. Moon pools, octagonal towers & statues of gods litter a quite extraordinarily tamed landscape. Patiently, Nature finds a way to reclaim that which has been lost. The once-octagonal pond at Gibside is now home to threatened great-crested newts and red squirrels still outrun their imported grey cousins in these man-made woods. Long may it be that way.