Netley Abbey

It's been a beautiful day today, if a little cool.  This was taken at Netley, where, for a change I didn't go for a walk by the water.  Instead I went to the Abbey, which I have never seen before.  It is very atmospheric, an extraordinarily peaceful place, that feels rather as though the contemplative life is still being lived there.  Perhaps it is by resident birds..

English Heritage now own/manage it.  This, in brief, is what they say about it:

Standing close to Southampton Water, Netley Abbey is the most complete surviving Cistercian monastery in southern England. After the Suppression of the Monasteries the buildings were converted into a mansion for Sir William Paulet. The ruins now reflect over 800 years of change, during which the abbey was transformed from a monastic house to a mansion house, and later to a romantic ruin.

One or two of the smaller rooms are still roofed.  There is an enormous medieval fireplace in one.  You can stand in a room one end of which was used by the monks for their robes, the other end of which was where their books were kept.  They might have left yesterday.

It was very quiet when I was there, just one young family having a picnic and a couple of truanting boys climbing as high as the walls went to take photos of eachother.  I didn't intervene, it was dangerous enough without an idiot woman distracting them with a lecture.

And now the weekend is here.  How nice is that.  Have a good one  xx