York - St Mary's Abbey

York was already an important centre in Roman times, when it was known under the name of Eboracum. The Vikings, who took over the area later from the Angels , in turn adapted the name to Norse Jórvík.

After the Anglian settlement York was first capital of Deira and later Northumbria, and by the early 7th century, York was an important royal centre for the Northumbrian kings. Following the Norman Conquest York was substantially damaged in response to regional revolt. Two castles were erected in the city on either side of the River Ouse. In time York became an important urban centre as the administrative centre of the county of Yorkshire, as the seat of an archbishop, and at times in the later 13th and 14th centuries as an alternative seat of royal government. It was an important trading centre.

York prospered during much of the later medieval era; the later years of the 14th and the earlier years of the 15th centuries were characterised by particular prosperity. During the English Civil War, the city was regarded as a Royalist stronghold and was besieged and eventually captured by Parliamentary forces under Lord Fairfax in 1644. After the war, York retained its pre-eminence in the North, and, by 1660, was the third-largest city in England after London and Norwich.

The first church here was founded in 1055 and dedicated to Saint Olaf. After the Norman Conquest the church came into the possession of William the Conquerer´s companion Alan Rufus who granted the lands to Abbot Stephen from Whitby. In 1089 the foundation stone of the new Norman church was laid. The foundation ceremony was attended by bishop Odo of Bayeux and Archbishop Thomas of Bayeux. The monks moved to York from a site at Lastingham. In 1137 the abbey was badly damaged by a great fire. The surviving ruins date from a rebuilding programme finished by 1294.

St Mary's Abbey was the largest and richest Benedictine establishment in the north of England and one of the largest landholders in Yorkshire. During the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII; it was closed and subsequently substantially destroyed. In November1539 the Abbey surrendered £2,085 and 50 monks to the Crown.