Maggie Cobbett

Hello, and thank you for visiting my site. I hope that you'll return often and always find something of interest about my world and what inspires me to pick up a pen. (This is a figure of speech, unfortunately. My handwriting is terrible!) Here's what I've been up to recently...

Honouring an old tradition

It is Boxing Day 2024, the weather is glorious and I have just emerged from the annual carol service in the Cellarium of Fountains Abbey. Hundreds of people were in attendance, many of whom had taken part in the annual pilgrimage from Ripon Cathedral. On this one day of the year, the National Trust allows free entrance to the estate until 12 noon, which is much appreciated by non-members, including my son Richard who took the photo above. But what is it all about, you might ask yourself, and why is it graced by high ranking clergy and other august personnages from North Yorkshire and beyond? The photo below shows the Very Reverend John Dobson, Dean of Ripon, the lady in the background is the Right Reverend Anna Eltringham, Bishop of Ripon and the gentleman on the right is Ralf Meister, Bishop of Hanover. Also present, although not caught on camera, were the Lords Lieutenant of North and West Yorkshire. When the service was over, anxious for a group shot, some of them handed over their phones to Richard. I joked with him later that he should have asked for a credit if they were planning to publish the photos, but he hadn’t, of course.

On St Stephen’s Day in 1132, a group of 13 Benedictines from St Mary’s Abbey in York set off from Ripon to walk the last few miles to the land they had been granted on the River Skell. Their aim was to build a monastery in which they could lead a simpler and more devout existence. Once settled into their new life, they joined the austere Cistercian order. During the years that followed, and largely thanks to the efforts of the lay brothers, Fountains Abbey became wealthy through wool production, lead mining, cattle rearing, horse breeding and stone quarrying. All that came to a halt in 1539 when Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries, but the site holds the largest monastic ruins in the country.