Selby Abbey history project gets £150k lottery cash boost

Selby Abbey is a rare survivor of the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s

A landmark abbey church in North Yorkshire has been awarded £150,000 in lottery cash for a project aiming to highlight its near 1,000-year history.

Selby Abbey, founded in 1069, is one of the few surviving abbey churches of the medieval period.

The Heritage Fund money is the first stage of a bid for £1.1m for the abbey's Origins history project.

Canon John Weetman, vicar of Selby Abbey, said staff were "delighted" over the funding award.

"Selby Abbey has been at the centre of the life and work of the people of Selby for more than 950 years," he said.

"It's great to know we are a step closer to preserving it for another millennium and finding new ways for people to enjoy and explore all that it has to offer both local and wider communities."

The Abbey was founded as a Benedictine monastery just three years after the Norman Conquest

Originally part of a Benedictine monastery, once one of the wealthiest in Yorkshire, Selby Abbey was abandoned after the English Reformation in the 16th Century.

The Grade I-listed building is significant for surviving intact following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the 1530s.

In the early 17th Century, it became Selby's parish church and has remained so ever since.

'Founding story'

The Selby Abbey Origins project, based around the St Germain window in the abbey's North Transept, aims to share stories of the religious site's monastic past.

The project is a partnership between Selby Abbey Parochial Church Council and the Selby Abbey Trust and is supported by North Yorkshire Council (NYC).

Simon Myers, NYC's executive member for culture, said the building had an "iconic" place in Selby's townscape and attracted many visitors to the town and wider area.

"This project moves the abbey to the next logical stage in its development, telling the founding story, which is one of the most important heritage narratives in the district," Mr Myers said.