Poort van de de Cartmel Priory before 1880

Alex Rivington’s “Poort van de de Cartmel Priory” is a printed image, likely an engraving or early photograph. It shows a stone structure: the titular gateway of Cartmel Priory. The Priory itself, of course, was a site of immense labor, built by hand from locally quarried stone. Each block was dressed and fitted, requiring the skills of masons and other tradespeople. This image captures that monumental effort, but it also shows the Priory’s later adaptation. Note the signs advertising businesses: CAVENDISH ARMS, J. FIELD. The Priory gateway, once a threshold to religious life, has become integrated into a more secular, commercial landscape. The image itself would have been created through a process of skilled labor, whether etched into a plate or captured on film and then reproduced. By focusing on the material transformation of a sacred space into a site of commerce, Rivington’s work challenges any clear distinction between the values of craftsmanship and the forces of commercial exchange.