The Monastery

About

The Monastery in Gorton has, perhaps, been the most at risk: in both 1998 and 2000, the exquisite building was placed on a list of the 100 Most Endangered Sites in the World by World Monuments Watch. The monastery shared the designation with Pompeii and the Taj Mahal, an indication of its architectural importance and the pressing likelihood of its being lost for future generations. The Grade II* building, a shining example of Gothic Revival Style by renowned architect Edward Pugin, was in an extremely dilapidated state: it took 300 people 609 days to conserve the monastery, with 100 miles of scaffolding used during the project. Laid end to end, the poles would have stretched from the site to Hadrian’s Wall. The work was, in some ways, evidence of the cyclical nature of history: the Fransiscan friary had originally been built with the help of volunteers from the local community, completing in 1872.