Listed Building record MDR10772 - Abbey House, Dale Abbey

Abbey House forms part of an L-shaped building that has been erected against the big stone chimney of the former Abbey kitchen. The kitchen itself is now lost, but probably stood on the site of the present house. The refectory, which was at first floor level above an under croft, lay southwest of the present house and when a cowshed was demolished to build a garage, a rescue excavation revealed the floor tiles of the refectory on top of sand which had levelled the floor over the vault of the undercroft. This vault, which had been demolished by ripping out the corbels that supported it, lay flattened beneath the sand. The house faces southwest onto the lane leading to All Saints Church which also incorporates part of the Abbey buildings. All that can be said about the date of the monastic chimney is that it is pre-Reformation; not enough is left to hazard a date. The Refectory either abutted directly onto its southeast side or stood close to it; if a plan of the excavations can be found, its position may be more exactly identified. The line of the undercroft vault can be seen on a fragment of stone wall at the back of the present garage at the northeast end. Assuming that the monastic kitchen stood on the northwest side of the stack, it must have been demolished at the latest when the present stone walled house was built, though perhaps much earlier. The present house was built as one dwelling, possibly in the second half of the 19th century. It was later divided into two cottages, and the rear wing of Abbey House was no doubt built to facilitate this. (1)