A HISTORY OF CUMBERLAND 



4. THE ABBEY OF CALDER 



The abbey of Calder is situated in a wooded 

 recess nearly a mile from the village of Cal- 

 derbridge, on the high road midway between 

 Egremont and Gosforth, in the south-west of 

 the county, not far from the priory of St. 

 Bees. It was an affiliation of the neighbour- 

 ing monastery of Furness and at first of the 

 order of Savigny which in 1148 was united 

 to the Cistercian Order. 1 As no chartulary 

 of the house is known to exist, we are de- 

 pendent for its history on incidental notices 

 gathered from various sources. 



From a trustworthy narrative of the found- 

 ing of the abbey of Byland in Yorkshire 2 by 

 Philip the third abbot of that monastery, we 

 derive almost all we know of the early his- 

 tory of Calder with great fulness of detail. As 

 Abbot Philip obtained his information from 

 Roger his predecessor, one of the original 

 monks of Calder, and as his story fits in well 

 with the local events of the period and con- 

 tradicts no ascertained historical facts, it may 

 be taken that his narrative is worthy of credit. 

 Other evidences of undoubted authority seem 

 to support his statements. 



This abbey is the third house in the county 

 which owes its origin to the great and famous 

 family of Ranulf Meschin, the first Norman 

 lord of Cumberland. The priory of Wetheral 

 was founded by him in the early years of the 

 reign of Henry I., and the priory of St. Bees 

 was founded by his brother, William Meschin, 

 soon after 1 1 20, both as cells of the Benedic- 

 tine abbey of St. Mary, York. It may be 

 admitted that Ranulf, the son of William, 

 took an interest in St. Bees, which lies within 

 the fee of Coupland, and was a great bene- 

 factor of his father's foundation. The time 

 came, perhaps after his father's death, when 

 this Ranulf founded another house at Calder 3 



1 Though the abbey of Calder, like all Cister- 

 cian churches, was entitled in the name of the 

 Blessed Virgin, we have on record an indulgence, 

 granted by Thomas, Bishop of Whithern, and 

 dated at Furness on 26 July 1314, for the soul of 

 Richard Carpenter, who formerly lived in the vill 

 of ' Goderthwayt ' and was buried in the church- 

 yard of St. Andrew within the monastery of Calder 

 (Duchy of Lane. Chart. Box A, No. 121). 



2 Dugdale, Man. v. 349-53. 



3 Pope Eugenius III. (l 145-53) said in a letter 

 that William son of Duncan gave Calder to the 

 monks of Furness, but further on he qualified the 

 statement by saying that ' Ranulf Mustin ' was the 

 real founder (Dugdale, Man. v. 249-50). At the 

 time of the suppression, the tradition was that the 

 abbey ' was founded by Lord Raynalld Meschynne, 

 lord of Copland, in 1134' (Harl. MS. 604, 

 f. 122). 



a few miles from his baronial seat at Egre- 

 mont. The abbey was founded on 10 Janu- 

 ary 1134, when Ranulf gave the land of 

 Calder (Kaldra) with its appurtenances for 

 that purpose. It was at a later date probably 

 that he added ' Bemertone ' and ' Holegate,' a 

 burgage in Egremont, two saltpans at White- 

 haven, fisheries in the Derwent and Egre, pas- 

 ture for the cattle of the monks in his forest, 

 and materials for building their houses. A 

 colony of twelve monks with Gerold as their 

 abbot went out from Furness and occupied 

 the new foundation. Abbot Philip of Byland 

 has left their names on record, viz. Robert 

 de Insula, Tocka de Loncastre, John de 

 Kynstan, Theodoric de Dalton, Orm de 

 Dalton, Roger the sub-cellarer, Alan de 

 Wrcewyk, Guy de Bolton, William de Bol- 

 ton, Peter de Pictaviis, Ulf de Ricomonte 

 and Bertram de London. These monks re- 

 mained in community at Calder for four 

 years, living in great hardship and privation 

 under the constitutions of the order of Savigny 

 in Normandy, to which at that time the abbey 

 of Furness belonged. 



The political troubles which followed the 

 death of Henry I. were disastrous to the 

 new institution at Calder. David, King 

 of Scots, while he was laying siege to the 

 castle of Norham, sent William son of Dun- 

 can, his nephew, into Yorkshire, who wasted 

 the province of Craven and obtained pos- 

 session of Furness. The atrocities com- 

 mitted during that expedition by the Picts 

 and Galwegians of the Scottish army are 

 well known. 4 Philip of Bywell tells us that 

 the abbey of Calder was one of the victims 

 of the raid. Thirsting for the blood of the 

 English, 'the barbarian Scots' came unex- 

 pectedly with great fury on the newly founded 

 (nuper inceptam) abbey and took away all they 

 could lay hold of, entirely spoiling the house. 

 The desolate monks sought refuge at the gate 

 of Furness, but they were refused admittance. 

 It was said in excuse for the cruelty of the 

 convent that as Abbot Gerold was unwilling 

 to resign his office and absolve his monks from 

 their profession to him, it would have been 

 inconvenient to have had two abbots with 



The Priory of Hexham, i. 82. Canon Raine 

 has pointed out the singularity of King David's 

 injunction to his nephew William son of Duncan 

 that he should devastate the district of which he 

 was feudal chief. The only explanation seems to 

 be that an effort was made in 1138 to keep Wil- 

 liam out of his inheritance. John of Hexham 

 tells us that the seignory of Skipton was restored 

 to him in 1151 by King David. It is almost 

 certain that Ranulf Meschin was dead at the time 

 of the raid. 



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