Buildwas Abbey dates from the 12th century, and it formed part of a Cistercian monastary. The ruins are managed by English Heritage, and despite the roof being lost soon after it closed, the ruins are in a pretty good shape. The site was partially fenced off in one area when I visited due to brittle stonework, and the site was free to visit. At one point, it appeared to be ticketed due to a structure at the entrance. Today, this contains a second-hand bookstore. Unfortunately, there were not any information panels around the site.
It's not too large of a site to explore. The first ruins at the front of the site were rows of columns that appeared to make the abbey. Part of the transcept was fenced off.
There were a couple of rooms to peer into.
At further down the site and at the other end was a final room with stairs down. There were patterned floor tiles here.
A family appeared to be having a picnic here, and there were a few people doing a professional photo shoot in the ruins.
It's a very small site, and I probably spent fifteen minutes wandering around the ruins and taking photographs (and waiting for the people doing the professional photoshoot in the rows of the columns to move). The second-hand bookstore was quite a nice feature, and I put some coins in the can and took a couple of books home.
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