Archive at Ripon Library
Much closer to home was St Michael de Monte, a small oratory built about 1200 by the monks of Fountains Abbey on what we now know as How Hill, near Fountains Abbey. The chapel always had a light burning in the tower to guide pilgrims through the dense forest that once stretched for miles around. The present church-like building is really a folly put up by John Aislabie of Studley Royal. In the eighteenth century the tower was sometimes used for wild gambling parties. It is now in the more sedate care of the National Trust.
So next time you climb a hill to see the view, remember that you are in a long line of worshippers, mystics, warriors, gardeners and travellers, all of whom had their own vision of those impressive heights.
Several names:
How Hill (Tower)
Mickelhow
Michael How
Herleshow / Erlesholt
Chapel of Saint Michael de Monte
Several lives:
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This hill, which rises in a conical form to the height of 622 feet above the level of the sea, and forms a remarkable object at a distance of more than twenty miles, is worthy of a visit from those whose time is not limited, and would consider themselves repaid by an almost boundless view from the great plain of York. It was anciently called Herleshow, as probably from being the place where the Saxon Earl of the County held his Court, as from its early possession of one who bore the name of Herle.
The monks of Fountains had on top of this hill a Chapel dedicated to St. Michael, which from an inscription walled into the present little tower, erected by Mr. Aislabie, in 1718, appears to have been rebuild or repaired by Abbot Huby, between 1494 and 1526, SOLI DEO HONOR M.H. ET GLORIA.
Raine, John Richard Walbran James. (2013). pp. 86-7. A Guide to Ripon, Fountains Abbey, Harrogate, Bolton Priory, and Several. London: Forgotten Books. (Original work published 1875)
The English Counties Delineated, Volume 2 By Thomas Moule
Much closer to home was St Michael de Monte, a small oratory built about 1200 by the monks of Fountains Abbey on what we now know as How Hill, near Fountains Abbey. The chapel always had a light burning in the tower to guide pilgrims through the dense forest that once stretched for miles around. The present church-like building is really a folly put up by John Aislabie of Studley Royal. In the eighteenth century the tower was sometimes used for wild gambling parties. It is now in the more sedate care of the National Trust.
So next time you climb a hill to see the view, remember that you are in a long line of worshippers, mystics, warriors, gardeners and travellers, all of whom had their own vision of those impressive heights.
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