Editing Gisborough Priory (section)

===Dissolution and after===
[[File:Prior Robert Pursglove.jpg|right|thumb|Prior [[Robert Pursglove]], the last prior of Gisborough Priory]]
In 1533 [[Henry VIII of England]] was excommunicated for divorcing [[Catherine of Aragon]]. The [[Act of Supremacy]] passed in 1534 declared Henry [[Supreme Head of the Church of England]] and the church's estate in England became part of the king's estate. In 1535 Henry ordered a comprehensive survey of the church's property, the ''[[Valor Ecclesiasticus]]''. It found that Gisborough Priory had an annual net value of £628.6s.8d., which made it the fourth wealthiest monastic house in Yorkshire. In 1536 monasteries with less than £200 of annual income were suppressed, exempting the priory from the first wave of suppression.<ref name="Coppack27" />

A second survey carried out by the king's commissioners, Thomas Legh and Richard Leyton, provided for the final suppression on charges of a lack of quality of religious life.<ref name="Coppack29">{{harvnb|Coppack|1993|page=29}}</ref> Prior James Cockerell of Guisborough was forced to resign and was replaced by [[Robert Pursglove]], who was loyal to the king. The priory's dissolution was not welcomed by locals, who derived economic benefit from its presence – in 1536, around 500 families depended on it for their livelihood.<ref name="Coppack30">{{harvnb|Coppack|1993|page=30}}</ref> The strength of feeling was recorded in a letter from Lord Conyers and Sir John Bulmer to [[Thomas Cromwell]]: "On Sunday, 11th&nbsp; July [1539], at Gysburn in Yorkshire, when the parish priest was declaring the articles [of dissolution] directed by the King to the Archbishop of York, one John Atkeynson ''alias'' Brotton came violently and took book forth of the priest's hands, and pulled it in pieces."<ref name="Davison77">{{harvnb|Davison|2007|page=7}}</ref> Popular discontent sparked the [[Pilgrimage of Grace]], in which Prior Cockerell was implicated. When the revolt failed, he was hanged at [[Tyburn]] in London with the Prior of Bridlington, the Abbot of [[Jervaulx]] and the former Abbot of Fountains.<ref name="Coppack30" />

The priory was formally dissolved on 8 April 1540 and surrendered to the king's men on 22 December 1540, making it one of the last monastic houses in England to be suppressed.<ref name="Coppack30"/> A proposal to found a secular college there came to nothing and the priory buildings – with the exception of the gatehouses and the great east window – were demolished. On 21 November 1541 Thomas Legh was granted a lease "of the buildings with the site and precincts of the Priory to be then demolished and carried away."<ref name="Proceedings" /> Demolition was carried out by collapsing its central tower into the body of the church, crushing it in its fall and reducing it to rubble.<ref name="Proceedings">{{cite journal|title=Proceedings at Meetings of the Royal Archaeological Institute|journal=[[The Archaeological Journal]]|date=3 June 1868|volume=25|pages=247–49|publisher=British Archaeological Association, Royal Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland}}</ref>

The site and lands were re-let in 1550 to Sir [[Thomas Chaloner (statesman)|Thomas Chaloner]], who later purchased the property outright.<ref name="Proceedings" /> The Chaloners occupied the former priors' quarters in the west range before moving to their new mansion, Old Gisborough Hall, on Bow Street in the late-17th century. The priory remains were cleared and the fallen stonework looted or sold. The grounds were redeveloped as formal gardens within the grounds of Old Gisborough Hall.<ref name="Coppack30" /> John Walker Ord, a local historian in the mid-19th century, described how the priory's stonework could be seen in many buildings around Guisborough. He deplored the profane uses to which it had been put:

{{blockquote|I have seen with my own eyes broken pillars and pedestals of this august pile desecrated to the vile uses of gateposts, stands for rainwater casks, and stepping-stones over a common sewer. A richly ornamented doorway of the venerable priory forms the entrance to a privy. I have beheld with sorrow, shame, and indignation, the richly ornamented columns and carved architraves of God's temple supporting the thatch of a pig-house.<ref name="Ord197">{{harvnb|Ord|1846|page=197}}</ref>}}

Some fragments of the priory travelled further afield. At [[Hardwick Hall Country Park|Hardwick Hall]] near [[Sedgefield]], a mock ruin was built incorporating sculptured stones brought from the priory.<ref name="Parson">{{harvnb|Parson|White|1828|page=316}}</ref> The priory's wealth became the stuff of local legends, one of which claimed an underground passage led from the priory to a cave under the hills in which a raven stood guard over a chest of gold.<ref name="Murray" />

The priory's lands around Guisborough were a source of wealth for the Chaloners. Around 1595, [[Thomas Chaloner (courtier)|Sir Thomas Chaloner's son]], also called Thomas, established England's first [[alum]] works at Belman Bank south of the town. Alum was an important product with a variety of industrial uses. It was especially important to the cloth industry as a [[mordant]] (a substance used to fix dyes on cloth).<ref name="BBC">{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/northyorkshire/content/articles/2005/07/21/coast05walks_stageseven.shtml|title=North Yorkshire – Coast – Point 7 – Alum|publisher=BBC |date=29 September 2006|access-date=30 July 2011}}</ref> The supply of alum was controlled by a cartel controlled by the [[Papal States]] and Spain which were in conflict with England and exercised a virtual monopoly on the provision of alum to Christian Europe, as the import of cheaper Turkish alum was banned by [[Pope Paul II]] in the mid-15th century.<ref>{{harvnb|de Roover|1999|pp=153–55}}</ref> Chaloner visited the Pope's alum works at [[Tolfa]] near Rome and noticed the soil and vegetation around them resembled those of his estate at Guisborough. On his return he established alum works at Belman Bank with the aid of workmen smuggled from Rome, earning him a papal excommunication.<ref name="Murray">{{harvnb|Murray|1867|page=195}}</ref> John Walker Ord casts doubt on the story, noting an account published a few decades afterwards stated that the workmen came from France and does not mention Chaloner's travels in Italy.<ref name="Ord79-80">{{harvnb|Ord|1846|pp=79–80}}</ref>

[[File:Remains of Gisborough Priory 1709 print.jpg|thumb|upright=1.7|left|Print from 1709 showing the remains of the priory in the background, and how its land was used after the [[Dissolution of the Monasteries|Dissolution]]. Old Gisborough Hall can be seen in the right foreground.]]
The only substantial part of the priory to survive was the eastern gable of the presbytery with its great east window. Its survival owed much to the rise of [[Romanticism]] in the 18th century. The portrayal of ruined buildings in idealised landscapes by {{no break|[[J. M. W. Turner]]}} and his contemporaries inspired a fashion for the nobility and gentry to produce paintings of monasteries providing an incentive for landowners to preserve them as romantic ruins, rather than using them as quarries. Gisborough Priory's east window was one of the first examples of a monastic ruin to be retained for its visual qualities. It was incorporated into the grounds of Old Gisborough Hall as a romantic ruin and the sill of the great window removed to ensure an uninterrupted view.<ref name="Macmillan" /><ref name="Greene202">{{harvnb|Greene|2005|page=202}}</ref> Fittingly, given his role in inspiring the east window's preservation, Turner himself sketched it in 1801 during a visit to Yorkshire.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/turner-guisborough-priory-tw0288|title=Joseph Mallord William Turner - Guisborough Priory 1801|publisher=Tate Gallery|access-date=2 July 2014}}</ref>

East Lawn was laid out in front of the east window and was used for grand bazaars and fêtes until the early 20th century. A [[ha-ha]] was installed behind to keep cattle out of the grounds.<ref name="Darnton52">{{harvnb|Darnton|2004|page=52}}</ref> To the south of the priory buildings the Long Terrace ran almost the full length of the grounds. It afforded access to the ruins via a flight of steps flanked by two carved demi-sea wolves, reflecting the coat of arms of the Chaloners. They were thought to be dragons by local people and the steps were referred to as the Dragon Steps.<ref name="Darnton48">{{harvnb|Darnton|2004|page=48}}</ref>

Old Gisborough Hall was demolished around 1825 and the Chaloners built a mansion house, [[Gisborough Hall]], about half a mile to the east in 1857.<ref name="Coppack30" /> In 1932, [[Thomas Chaloner, 2nd Baron Gisborough]] transferred control of the priory to the [[Office of Works]]. which became the responsibility of the [[Ministry of Works (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Works]], then the [[Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs|Department of the Environment]] and from 1984, [[English Heritage]].<ref name="Coppack30" /><ref name="CCAS" /> It remains the property of Lord Gisborough; English Heritage is responsible for maintaining the ruins, while day-to-day running is managed by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council.<ref>{{cite news|title=Priory wall wrecked by vandals|work=Durham County Publications|date=29 June 2001}}</ref>

According to folklore, the priory is haunted by the ghost of a monk in a black habit who returns annually to check that its buried treasure has not been disturbed. He is said to arrive at midnight on the year's first new moon to lower a ghostly drawbridge spanning a vanished moat. In 1966 and 1967 a hundred people turned out to watch and allegedly managed to spot a cowled figure, but in 1968 the few spectators who turned up saw nothing.<ref name="Walker">{{harvnb|Walker|1990|page=70}}</ref><ref name="Christian">{{harvnb|Christian|1972|page=91}}</ref>