The History of The Name Rosedale Abbey

7th October 2015

Rosedale Abbey has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years. One of the most frequently asked questions we hear from guests are, “Is there an Abbey?” and of course, “Where are the roses?”

The name Rosedale Abbey means you may well expect to see the remains of an Abbey and perhaps some roses. It fact, neither are elements that Rosedale Abbey is best known for. There is no Abbey and as far as we know, Rosedale isn’t famous for growing roses.

However, a little digging around shows that Rosedale’s religious history is in fact based around a Cisterian Priory not an Abbey. The difference is that Abbeys were inhabited by Monks, whereas Nuns lived in a Priory. What remains of the Priory can be seen by visiting the grounds of the local church. The Rose part could possibly be due to earlier Viking inhabitants, as the name Rossi was a name for horse and also possibly a person’s name. You can read full details of the early history of Rosedale Abbey on the community website history page.

As times passed, Rosedale Abbey flourished with the discovery of iron mining, the population growing quite markedly until the mines were exhausted in the early 1920’s. Rosedale Abbey’s history across the ages is a remarkable record of human development. We’ll be writing more about some of the historical evidence of Rosedale through the ages, but meanwhile, this Wikipeadia resource gives you an overview of some of the history of Rosedale Abbey.