Bayham Abbey is a fine example of 16th century destruction in an age of religious intolerance, grotesque public execution and profiteering. Today, it is a quiet place of crumbling sandstone set amongst beautiful and ancient trees at the base of a valley. The ruins sit next to an assortment of more recent buildings built by various belted earls, including a dowdy dowager’s house and small, overdone church. The stark, dark edifice of Bayham Hall grandstands above grounds landscaped by Humphry Repton. This is an excellent location to contemplate the established English landscape.

Three Norman arches

A huge beech tree now grows out of the wall beyond the high altar

The tentacular roots of the beech tree

The abbey would have been huge and commanding in the landscape of the 12th Century

Puffing cloudscape above Repton’s landscape

Bayham Hall above the abbey ruins