Tintern Abbey
A Tale of Two Abbeys
We all know Tintern Abbey is in the Wye Valley and is the only one. Well, apparently not.
A random question from one of our customers got me doing a bit of research and I was surprised to find out that there is another Tintern Abbey. I thought I would do a bit more digging and find out about the monks and how they lived along with the history of the abbeys.
Tintern
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.