People from Barrow and Dalton often call Furness Abbey, Our Abbey . It’s a place we are fond of and proud of. We love the tranquil setting, the history of the ruins and the stories that abound from its past. Its cloisters and Chapter House, nave and transept, infirmary and dormitory have all intrigued visitors who have tried to imagine what life was like here in Medieval times.

But Our Abbey is more than stones and arches, gargoyles and pillars. It’s also a place where people have lived and worked, visited and enjoyed. Over nearly 900 years so many different people have worshipped and laboured, rested and recuperated, and these people are as interesting as the remains of the old buildings.

This book attempts to tell the story of the Abbey through the people who were here, whether monks in the twelfth century, soldiers in the sixteenth, tourists in Victorian times or children in the 20th century. Twenty-eight people over the centuries tell their story and their relationship with the abbey, from the men who built it from 1127 onwards all the way to the Site Manager who looks after it on behalf of English Heritage today.

Read about the people and learn about the place they loved, Our Abbey .