A REVAMPED museum and visitor centre is set to open at one of the region’s most well-known historic sites.

Rievaulx Abbey, near Helmsley, is to reopen its museum on May 28, following a £1.8m investment from English Heritage.

The site’s exhibition space has been opened out and modernised, which will allow it to present its existing collection from the site in a completely new way, as well as enable the museum to meet the criteria required to accept important monastic artefacts from regional and national institutions.

There will also be a new and improved audio tour people can take with them when exploring the ruins and a new, extended visitor centre with a larger tearoom.

The centre will tell the whole story of the Cistercian abbey, from when the first 12 monks travelled to Rievaulx with their abbot to establish the site in 1132, right through to the Suppression and the post-monastic use of the site.

Liz Page, historic properties director for English Heritage North, said: “The quality of our visitor experience is paramount. We want to ensure that this prestigious location provides an excellent exhibition space to showcase our wonderful collection.

“Displaying Rievaulx’s artefacts within a revamped museum will give visitors a real insight into life at one of the wealthiest monasteries in Britain. Rievaulx Abbey is nationally recognisable and one of our most prestigious sites – this undertaking merits the thought, planning and careful consideration which have taken place in preparation.”

Rievaulx Abbey was one of the wealthiest in England with 650 monks living there in the 12th century.

From their location in a valley by the River Rye, the monks built up a profitable business mining lead and iron, rearing sheep and selling wool to buyers from all over Europe and received grants of land which totalled 6,000 acres.

But by the end of the 13th century the abbey had incurred debts on its building projects and lost revenue. They also suffered devastating raids from Scotland in the early 14th century and a large reduction in population caused by the Black Death made it difficult to recruit sufficient manual labour.

The abbey was dissolved by King Henry VIII in 1538. Henry ordered the buildings be rendered uninhabitable and stripped of valuables such as lead. The site was granted to one of Henry’s advisers, the Earl of Rutland, who began harvesting the site of valuable materials. It later passed to the Duncombe family.

The renovated buildings will be open from May 28, but the abbey can still be visited in the meantime.