The History of the Abbey of Aberconway 1186–1537

1963 First edition hardback 8vo xiii, 210pp.,  Original publisher’s red cloth with silver-stamped title, author surname, and structural rules to the spine.  The paper dust jacket,  shows natural age-toning, faint localized handling smudges, and minor shelf wear to the spine margins and extreme edge corners.

This academic work provides a meticulous institutional history of the Cistercian Abbey of Aberconway from its late 12th-century foundation through to its dissolution under Henry VIII in 1537. Hays analyzes the strategic, economic, and political position of the house, which enjoyed the close patronage of the native princes of Gwynedd before being physically relocated to Maenan by Edward I following the English conquest. The text uses internal land charters, papal bulls, and exchequer rolls to trace the abbey’s agricultural assets, wool trade dynamics, internal discipline, and long-standing relations with daughter houses like Whitland and Strata Florida.

A 1963 first edition monograph presenting a definitive, archive-based institutional history of the Cistercian abbey of Aberconway. It charts its foundation, economic expansion, regional relocation, and final 16th-century dissolution.