Bindon Abbey

Bindon Abbey (Bindonium) was a Cistercian monastery, of which only ruins remain, on the River Frome about half a mile east of Wool in the Purbeck District, Dorset, England.

[2] From the 14th century the abbey suffered from a number of internal and economic difficulties which seriously reduced its income and wealth.

It was scheduled for Dissolution in 1536, but John Norman, the then abbot, paid the Crown the enormous sum of £300 to save it.

The foundations of the monastery and the surviving walls show that it followed the standard Cistercian layout of a cruciform church with a nave and two side aisles and a straight east end, with two chapels off each arm of the transept (the so-called 'Bernardine' plan).

Later records refer to royal gifts of timber for rebuilding in 1213 and 1235; these works are no longer in evidence, although fragments of the 14th century pulpitum have been excavated.

In the chapter-house in the east range the recessed shafts of the columns that supported the ceiling vaulting are still to be seen, a feature derived from the mother house at Forde.