Buckfast Abbey was founded by Earl Aylward in the reign of King Cnut in 1018. In 1147 it became a Cistercian abbey and was rebuilt in stone. In medieval times the abbey became very rich through fishing and trading in sheep wool, although the Black Death killed two abbots and many monks-by 1377 there were only fourteen monks at Buckfast. On 25 Febuary 1539 William Petre arrived at Buckfast and declared the abbey to be dissolved by order of King Henry V111. The monks were compelled to leave and the buildings were looted and destroyed. The abbey stood in ruins for over 200 years. On 28 October 1882 six Benedictine monks arrived at Buckfast having been exiled from France. The land had been leased by monks from the St Augustine's Priory in Ramsgate and was later bought for £4,700. The first new abbot was Boniface Natter, who died in a shipwreck in 1906. His travelling companion Anscar Vonier became the next abbot and pledged to fulfil his dying wish, namely to rebuild the abbey. The monks lived among the ruins and gradually rebuilt the abbey church upon the foundations of the abbey constructed in 1147. The church itself was restored between 1905 and 1937. Over the thirty two years there were never more than six monks working on the project at any one time, although the whole community had repaired the ancient foundations up to ground level. Construction methods were primitive - wooden scaffolding was held together by ropes and no safety protection was worn by the monks. One monk fell 50 feet but survived and three monks fell of a hoist without serious injuryin 1931. Construction cotinued through World War 1, with the German monks being unable under local law to leave the abbey grounds. The Abbey was consecrated on August 25 1932, but the building was finally finished with the laying of the last stone in late 1937. All infomation from Wikipedia