Religious Sites
The parish church of St Andrew dates from the 12th century and has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. The floor of the porch was cobbled with alabaster stones from the beach below the village and set in the shape of a heart during the 17th century.
In Leighland Chapel is the church of St Giles which was built in 1861 by C.E. Giles on the site of a previous building.
Cleeve Abbey in Washford village, is a medieval monastery founded in the late twelfth century as a house for monks of the austere Cistercian order. In 1536 Cleeve was closed by Henry VIII during the Dissolution of the Monasteries and the abbey was converted into a country house. Subsequently, the status of the site declined and the abbey was used as farm buildings until the latter half of the nineteenth century when steps were taken to conserve the remains. In the twentieth century Cleeve Abbey was taken into state care; it is now looked after by English Heritage and is open to the public. Today Cleeve Abbey is one of the best-preserved medieval Cistercian monastic sites in Britain. While the church is no longer standing, the conventual buildings are still roofed and habitable and contain many features of particular interest including the 'angel' roof in the refectory and the wall paintings in the painted chamber.
Binham Farmhouse was built in the 15th century as the grange to the abbey.
Chapel Cleeve Manor, which dates from 1452, is the remains of a pilgrim's hospice attached to the chapel, which was enlarged as a country house, has been a hotel and is now a private house.
Read more about this topic: Old Cleeve
Famous quotes containing the word religious:
“It is not funny that anything else should fall down; only that a man should fall down.... Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)