The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
St Mary and St Cuthbert (now)
Parish church, formerly Augustinian house
Bolton Abbey is a small village about six miles E of Skipton and the same distance NW of Ilkley; the parish church preserves the nave of an Augustinian priory church. The priory was situated at the edge of wild country, where the river Wharfe runs out of a gorge onto a plain open to the S: the aspect is bright and sheltered.
The parish church was formed from the mainly Gothic nave of the cruciform priory church, its E wall being the blocked W arch of the crossing. The remains of interest to the Corpus in the parish church comprise those capitals of the W crossing arch which remain visible; the lower parts of the S wall of the nave with two doorways into the cloister, and an altar slab. The ruins outside the parish church are maintained by the Bolton Abbey Estate and there is open access except to the interior of the E arm which is restricted by low fences. The Romanesque sculpture in the ruins is on the blank arcades in the E arm, the piers of the crossing, and the blank arcading on the N wall of the cloister; a few bases remain of other buildings.