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"MALTBY, a parish in the W.R. of Yorkshire."
"ROCH ABBEY, in the parish of Maltby, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, on the S. E. side of Rotheram, among woods and rocks; in one of which is a cave, said to have had a subterraneous passage formerly to a mon. in Tickhill-Castle, 2 m. off. The inh. tell and believe strange stories of ridiculous pranks, played by ghosts and goblins in and about this abbey and cave. One side of the building, with some pillars and arches, are all the ruins of it remaining, except some fragments scattered up and down for about half a m. round; but the E. of of Scarborough takes care to preserve what is left. These ruins, especially when the sun shines on them from the W. form a picture exceedingly delightful; and their recluse situation, free from every noise, but the murmur of a rivulet gliding thro' them, together with the fragments of sepulchral monuments, and the gloomy shades of the ivy, yew, &c. which branch out among them, make the scene perfectly solemn and venerable. The stone, whereof the abbey was built, was dug out of a neighbouring quarry, and is so white and beautiful, that the masons prize the Roch-Abbey stone above all others."
[Transcribed by Mel Lockie © from
Stephen Whatley's England's Gazetteer, 1750]