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Monastic Foundations
Roche Abbey
The Abbey of St Mary of Roche near Maltby was a
Cistercian House founded in 1147AD by Richard de Bully, Lord of Tickhill and Richard son of Turgis. There are many charters detailing the landed property of the Abbey but no chronicle
of the house survives. For more about Roche Abbey visit onsite at Tourism in Rotherham >> Out & About in the Borough of Rotherham >> Roche Abbey.
Kirkstead Abbey Grange
About 1161AD the Cistercian monks of Kirkstead Abbey in Lincolnshire entered into agreements with the Lords of the Manors of Ecclesfield and Kimberworth to exploit iron ore deposits near Thundercliffe. Throughout the Middle Ages there was a residence, forges, furnaces and iron ore workings here. The work was done by lay brothers who were housed in the Monks Smithy Houses now known as Kirkstead Abbey Grange (a farm then private houses in the Twentieth Century). There was also a grange with fishponds, dovecote and stables at Thundercliffe built for the estate granger who had charge of the farm and corn mill.
Hermitages
Hermitages were out of the way places where a monk or holy man lived in prayer or seclusion away from the abbey or priory. The Hermitage of St John the Baptist was situated near Blackburn in the Manor of Kimberworth. By 1161 this had been abandoned as an hermitage and the lands were granted to the monks of Kirkstead Abbey for exploitation of iron ore.