Monks left St Mary's Abbey in York and founded the abbey in 1132 under Archbishop Thurstan. In 1135 it became the second Cistercian house in northern England. Early buildings were wooden, and Abbot Henry Murdac replaced them with a small stone church after 1143. A fire in 1146 led to a larger church, completed around 1170 and about 300 feet (91 m) long. The choir was lengthened from 1203, and Abbot John of Kent completed the eastern transept. The article calls the main buildings Romanesque and Early English Gothic, built between 1170 and 1247.
Abbot Marmaduke Huby built the 160-foot (49 m) tower shortly before the Dissolution. Abbot Marmaduke Bradley surrendered the abbey in 1539, and the Crown sold the buildings in 1540. The precinct covers 70 acres (28 hectares).
It lies within Studley Royal Park, and the National Trust bought the estate in 1983. UNESCO listed it in 1986.
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