The Spirits of Furness Abbey
By Emily Graham & Emily Torkington
Once a magnificently rich Cistercian Monastery, the Furness Abbey ruins lay in a small Cumbrian town, Barrow-In-Furness. It was built entirely of local sandstone from the “Valley Of The Deathly Nightshade,” and was passed down to the religion in 1147, when they sculpted it and improved the celebrated buildings. By the fifteenth century it was the second richest and most powerful Cistercian Abbey in the UK.
The Abbey was so rich it built a harbour on Walney Island to promote the trade of wool and iron. Dalton Castle, which was used as a courthouse and Piel Island Castle, for protection and as a port to collect wheat, flour and other requirements sent from far away due to the poor crop seasons.
The monks and builders had been very clever when creating the Abbey. They had planned out where to put the kitchen area so that it was near a clean water supply and put the lavatories at the bottom of the free-flowing river so as not the pollute the water needed for cooking or other household tasks. The drainage system was way ahead of the time and allowed the beautiful abbey to stay clean.
Altogether the church is 287 feet long and at some parts the walls can be five feet thick and soar up to fifty-four feet high, way up into the British clouds so that the once-pale red stonework merges into the murky blue sky. The high windows were decorated beautifully in images of the Virgin Mary and St George. These, however, are no longer on site, but the empty casements still remain to represent the beauty that once graced the abbey. The intimate details within the stonework have also been preserved for the hundreds of visitors the Abbey receives each year.
The Abbey holds many secrets which still have yet to be discovered. One of these is that a tunnel is been said to run underneath the Abbey to both Piel Castle and Dalton Castle. This was said to be how the monks travelled to and from each monument to receive foodstuffs and keep watch upon the towns. This tunnel, however, has never yet been found.
It has also been rumoured that the Holy Grail and King John’s missing jewels, are actually hidden somewhere inside. Legend or truth? Again, these have never been found, but it never stops people having a look whenever they visit. You never know if they’ll be the lucky ones to discover it and come face to face with the goblet, dish, or plate touched by Jesus at the Last Supper!
When it disintegrated in the Reformation it was greatly missed, as tourism for Barrow dropped dramatically and a number of poor people died relying on the Abbey as their main source of nutrients and food…and to think it was all because one man wanted to have a divorce. Henry VIII went about burning down the many Catholic monasteries, whilst the current monks from these times were still inside them.
Furness Abbey was no exception to this. King Henry gave each monk £2 each in April 1537 and then ruined the once beautiful Abbey, to how it appears today.
One of the monks that got brutally murdered in the Reformation is said to still be seen climbing one of the stair sets in the Abbey. He is a ghostly white figure leaning on the banister as if someone was pulling him up the stairs. He looks weak, maybe from what he went through during the Reformation.
Another story is of a pretty squire’s daughter and her partner who repaired the Abbey ruins. One day her partner he went to sea and never came back. Everyday after that she went to the Abbey by the same path, and although that was many years ago, the path that her and her lover once walked and the spot in which she gazed upon, is still called “My Lady’s Walk.”
Another common spooky monk story of Furness Abbey is the ghost of a headless monk, said to be seen on horse-back riding through an old sandstone archway near the Abbey Tavern. Again, he may have been killed in the Reformation when riding his faithful horse, which also probably died at the same time. Obviously the monk must have gone through a gruesome death as his head was decapitated!
Whether you believe these stories or not, some of these sightings cannot be dismissed and the local people’s views cannot be changed. They strongly believe in the many ghosts that are supposed to inhabit the ancient monastery and who will continue to roam around the remains of the place that they called home; Furness Abbey.
LINKS
The scars of Henry VIII’s crusade against Catholic institutions in Britain are all over the landscape. For a fully comprehensive report of the Reformation that destroyed the Abbey, look at The Bitter Divide in the Black Country section. If you want some great local ghost stories, read Three Stories from the Haunted Black Country in the same section.