Revesby Abbey

Revesby Abbey lies in Lincolnshire, near the village of Revesby. It began as a Cistercian monastery founded in 1143 by William de Roumare, Earl of Lincoln, with monks arriving from Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire. The abbey once controlled nine manors and held a weekly market and an annual fair in Mareham. By 1534 its income reached £1,287, yet mismanagement left it in decay by 1538. The abbey was dissolved around 1539 and later became a private estate. After dissolution the estate passed through several owners, including Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and William Cecil, Baron Burghley. In the 18th century it belonged to the Banks family, including the botanist Sir Joseph Banks who sailed with Captain Cook. The present house was rebuilt in 1845 in Jacobethan style by architect William Burn for James Banks Stanhope. Earlier houses stood on the same site, though none of the original abbey remains visible today. Visitors find earthworks marking the abbey precinct and the remains of three rectangular fishponds. Excavations in 1869 uncovered the abbey church and cloister, and the skeletons of several monks were found in 1870. The stable block has been partly restored, but the main house remains in poor condition. The grounds still show traces of the mid-18th-century landscaping carried out for Joseph Banks II.