HistoryHidden
Lydiate Abbey
Never an abbey, always a secret.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- Roofless sandstone chapel walls by a road
- Legend from
- Lydiate tradition
- Best time
- Any
- Tone
- Melancholy
They call it Lydiate Abbey, but no abbot ever ruled here; priests were buried here in secret.
The ruined chapel of St Catherine stands on the A5147 in Lydiate, next to the Scotch Piper Inn. It was probably built in the late 15th or early 16th century by the Ireland family, and was used for private worship until it fell out of use in the 16th century. Its graveyard continued to take burials, among them Jesuit priests buried in secret. The earliest grave dates from 1701, and Catholic burials went on there into the later 19th century. Locally it is known as Lydiate Abbey, but it was never an abbey; Wikipedia says the name is a local tradition that became popular.
One sourceOnly one written account of this legend has been found so far.