That extends to the graffiti that covers the back wall of the gatehouse. While some is from the 19th Century, depictions of two ships are “classic medieval types”.
“They are medieval religious graffiti, in fact, because the ship is an emblem of religious life,” says Oswald.
“They do illustrate that important link with the sea that Thornton Abbey had through its trading links.”
Unsurprisingly, some lurid legends have become attached to the site, such as the story of an abbot who is said to have been found walled up there.
“In some versions he’s sitting at a desk with a sort of quill grasped between his bony fingers and a little candle that’s burnt right down to the bottom on the desk in front of him,” Oswald says.
“I think the whole thing’s a myth. But there are, as we’ve seen, these little tiny spaces where you could imagine that myth arising from.”