Dissolution
During the Tudor period, with Henry VIII's dissatisfaction with the Catholic Church, the monasteries were dissolved. Monks throughout the realm were concerned for the safety of not only their religious houses, but their practices and relics.
Strata Florida was not excused from the wrath of Henry VIII, and the monastery was dissolved in the 1540s by the church commissioners. The refectory and dormitory were rebuilt into a gentry house, now known as Ty Abaty, which was owned by a number of families, including the Steadmans and the Powells of Nanteos.
Sir John Vaughan, of Trawsgoed, acquired from Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex much of the former monastic lands of the Cistercian abbey at Strata Florida. At the same time further land was added to the estate through his marriage to Jane Stedman, daughter of John Stedman of Ystrad Fflur and Cilcennin.
The monastery buildings themselves were largely demolished, with the stone going to be recycled in surrounding buildings, such as potentially the great barn complex by Ty Abaty. A complex site, it is still unknown what buildings were contemporary with the monastery and repaired with stone plundered from other Monastery buildings, and which were built new from the plundered stone. It is also unknown whether the present parish church of St. Mary, within the boundaries of the graveyard, was built from robbed stone, or is a rebuild of what would have been the visitor's chapel for the monastery.
Read more about this topic: Strata Florida Abbey
Famous quotes containing the word dissolution:
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