With the dissolution of the
Cistercian Abbey, a new era in the history of the Abbey begins to unfold. It
could no longer function as a monastic house. The original instructions at
the time of Dissolution were that the Commissioners:
“should pull to the ground all
the walls of the churches, steeples, cloisters, fraters, dorters, chapter
houses etc."
It soon became clear that
demolition would prove too expensive since the stone walls were very solid.
The Commissioners usually contented themselves with ripping the lead from
the roofs, removing the bells for melting down, stripping out the stairs and
leaving only the walls. Records tell us that these remaining stone walls
were often used a local “quarry” for re-building other premises in the area.
It is probable that this was the state of the Abbey when it was leased to
John Parker in 1539. Parker died without heirs in 1552 and the property
reverted to the Crown. In 1554 it was leased to William Carpenter and
William Savage. Within a very short period they sold the property to William
Morgan. It is interesting to see how the wheel turned the full circle
because the new owner, William Morgan, was directly descended from Hywel ap
Iorweth, the founder of the Abbey and the original owner of the land.
