Selby Abbey

A Benedictine church dedicated in 1069, one of the few medieval abbeys to survive intact. It was never promoted into a cathedral and successive archepiscopal inspectors found the abbot and monks to be a slovenly lot, carrying on with married women and not even saying their prayers afterwards. At the Dissolution it became a parish church. It suffered a trashing by Cromwell but the main threat was subsidence into the sandy soil. It was restored in the 19th century, then again after a fire of 1906, then again in 2002. The style is part Norman, part Decorated Gothic but its best known feature is the "Stars and Stripes" stained glass window, the 15th century coat of arms of the Washington family, whose descendant George Washington became first President of the United States. The abbey remains in use as an Anglican church.