Shap Abbey

Shap Abbey was a Premonstratensian abbey on the western bank of the River Lowther around 1 1/2 miles from the village of Shap in Cumbria, England. The site is in the care of English Heritage and managed on its behalf by the Lake District National Park.

The site is open to the public at all reasonable times and entry is free. Facilities are limited to a car park and a short path leading over the fields to the small 16th-century Keld Chapel, now in the care of the National Trust.

Shap Abbey was built in 1199. The abbey was originally founded 20 miles south of Shap near Kendal in 1190, but it moved to 'Hepp' in 1199. The old name means 'a heap' but it gradually changed to Shap over the next 100 years.

Shap Abbey escaped the initial phase of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536, but it was closed in 1540 and subsequently sold to the Governor of Carlisle. Most of the abbey buildings have been demolished and the masonry robbed away at the end of the 17th century to build Shap Market Hall, much of the ornate carved stonework was also removed and used in the building of Lowther Castle. Many of the monastic buildings were incorporated into a farmhouse and used as barns. Little has changed over the last four centuries because the abbey ruins still form part of a working farm complex.

External links

* [http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/server/show/conProperty.162 Shap Abbey information at English Heritage]
* [http://www.english-lakes.com/shap_abbey.html Illustrated article on Shap Abbey]