St Mary's Abbey Traditional Geocache
Barry'n'Shirley: these lasted some time but now have ended
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(small)
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A small screw top container in a quite space of a public park
The gardens are open daily from 7.30am, except for 25 December. From late October until late March, they close at 6pm, and during the summer months they open later into the evening.
Entry to the gardens is free.
The ruins of St Mary's Abbey, first built in 1088, are all that remains of one of the wealthiest and most powerful Benedictine monasteries in England.
The abbey estate occupied the entire site of the Museum Garden and the abbot was one of the most powerful clergymen of his day, on a par with the Archbishop of York.
The monks would spend their days working in abbey administration, copying books, trading with merchants, providing food and supplies for the monastery, managing the abbey’s estates and helping the poor.
Visitors can see the remains of the walls of the nave and crossing of the abbey church, where the monks prayed and sang, and the cloister, where the monks washed their clothes, contemplated and were allowed to speak.
King Henry VIII banned all monasteries in England in 1530s. The monks at St Mary's were pensioned off in 1540 and the abbey buildings were converted into a palace for the King when he visited York.
Gradually they fell into ruins and were used as agricultural buildings before being excavated by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society in the 1820s.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
oruvaq envyvat; va vil; onfr bs ybar sve gerr