Tintern was founded in 1131 by Walter
fitz Richard (d. 1138), the Anglo-Norman lord of
Chepstow, and a member of the powerful family of Clare. Walter of Clare was also
related by marriage to Bishop William of Winchester, who had introduced the first colony
of White Monks to Waverley in 1128. Tintern was the first Cistercian house to be
founded in Wales and the second in the British Isles after Waverley.
Tintern abbey, situated deep in the Wye
valley, was colonised by monks from L'Aumone
(Loir-et-Cher) in the diocese of Blois in France. L'Aumone was in turn a daughter house
of Cîteaux, and Tintern was therefore linked as a granddaughter to the Burgundian
mother house. The community grew quickly and by 1139, had sufficient numbers to
send out a colony to Kingswood in Gloucestershire. During its early years the house was
led by Abbot Henry, a man of great spirituality. Henry, who presided over the community
from 1148-1157, had spent his youth as a robber, but later repented and took the
Cistercian habit. Abbot Henry is known to have visited both the Pope and St. Bernard. In
1189 William Marshal, earl of Pembroke, became lord of Chepstow and patron of
Tintern. Earl William was also lord of Leinster in south-east Ireland and, during a storm
at sea, he promised God that he would establish a new monastery on these lands if he
was saved from shipwreck. Thus Tintern sent out her second and final colony to
establish the abbey of Tintern Parva (Little Tintern) on William's lands in Ireland (1201-
1203).
The abbey buildings appear to have been
intended for a fairly large community: some
twenty monks and perhaps fifty lay-brothers. The monastery was endowed with lands
and possessions on both sides of the river Wye. By the late thirteenth century the monks
at Tintern were farming well over 3000 acres of arable land on the Welsh side of the
Wye and kept some 3000 sheep on their pasture lands.
In 1245 the lordship of Chepstow passed
to the Bigod family. Roger Bigod III, Earl of
Norfolk (1270-1306), took a keen interest in the abbey. In 1301-2 he granted the abbey
his Norfolk manor of Acle. This proved to be a valuable asset to Tintern and by the
sixteenth century was accounting for a quarter of the abbey's income. Roger Bigod was
remembered primarily as the builder of the abbey church. The project, which had
commenced in 1269, was finally concluded under the patronage of Roger, c. 1301. At
the time of the Dissolution the monks were still distributing alms to the poor five times a
year for the repose of Roger's soul.
The abbey was at its most prosperous at
the turn of the fourteenth century but
afterwards made no significant additions to its property. In 1535 the net annual income
of the abbey was valued at £192, which made Tintern the wealthiest abbey in Wales at
this time. Even so, the abbey came under the first Act of Suppression (1536) which
dissolved all houses under an annual income of £200. The house was surrendered in
September 1536 and the site was granted to Henry Somerset, earl of Worcester (d.
1549), who was the current patron of the house. The earl stripped the buildings of their
roofs for lead. At some point during the following century a number of the monastic
buildings may have been converted into dwelling houses.
During the second half of the eighteenth
century the wooded slopes of the Wye became
a popular site for 'Romantic' tourists, with the ruins at Tintern acknowledged as 'the
jewel and highlight of the tour'. At this time the site was owned by the Duke of Beaufort.
He was passionate about the heritage left to him and set about preserving the abbey as
the perfect gothic ruin. Reverend William Gilpin's guidebook 'Observations on the River
Wye' (1782) became an immediate bestseller and travellers flocked to the area
particularly to experience Tintern, which was supposed to be the most beautiful scene
on the tour. In 1792 J. M. W. Turner made pencil sketches of Tintern which later became
a selection of his most magnificent water colours. The abbey was also the inspiration
behind one of the greatest romantic poems of the English language: William
Wordsworth's 'Lines Composed a few miles above Tintern Abbey, 13 July 1798'. This
poem is still being mined by academics and their students throughout the word as an
icon of the Romantic movement
In 1901 the site was recognised as a monument
of national importance and the property
was sold to the Crown. A restoration programme was set in motion which was
completed c. 1928.
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