It is the largest and most well-known monastic ruin in the United Kingdom, conjuring up pastoral ideas of quiet, introspection, and little noise, except for the odd whiff of Gregorian singing.

Fountains Abbey near Ripon, researchers discovered, was as bustling, loud, and industrialized as any other place in 12th and 13th-century Britain.

The foundations of a medieval tannery have been discovered at the abbey, which is a world heritage site, according to the National Trust. Experts were taken aback.

"This is a fantastic find, and it's extremely significant," said Mark Newman, a trust archaeologist. "When you discover a major building on this scale that was completely unknown... you don't get many of those in a career," says Fountains, which is perhaps the most examined Cistercian monastery in Britain.

Many people felt there was nothing further to learn about Fountains, but Newman said one mystery had always been what the long, bowling alley-style expansion near the River Skell was used for.

The use of ground-penetrating radar has revealed previously undiscovered monastery structures, including one that is 16 meters broad and 32 meters long. They're surrounded by lined pits and tanks. These factors, together with the fact that it is adjacent to water, have led to the strong conclusion that it is the ruins of a tannery, a facility that produced textiles for garments, belts, beds, and book bindings.

The size of the tannery and its proximity to the monks has startled archaeologists even more. "A tannery of this size, spanning such a large area of the site, reveals a large-scale operation," Newman said.

A medieval tannery was a deplorable environment. Hooves and horns were removed from animal skins and hides before they were cleaned to remove manure, grime, and blood. The fat, hair, and meat were then scraped off with knives after being soaked in a lime or urine solution.

The loudness, bustle, and odor of tanneries, according to Newman, led to the idea that it would be located far away from monks and their devotion. "We can now see how close the tannery was to the idea of a peaceful, tranquil abbey community," he remarked.

People would have been surprised at how many people lived and worked at Fountains, according to Newman, with Cistercian monks being "the first to apply themselves to these industrial scales of living and managing the landscape."

The results, he claimed, also demonstrated the necessity of lay brothers at the location. Like the monks, lay brothers were illiterate and were often assigned to the more physically demanding tasks. Monks had more time to study, pray, and worship as a result of this.

The lay brothers were given waterproof animal skin capes for outdoor labor and slept beneath sheepskins, since they were regarded "separate but equal" to the monks. “Hundreds of lay brothers were recruited by Fountains in its early decades, all of whom needed to be equipped in this way,” Newman said. "It was made possible by this tannery."

Despite being taken away by the scope of the activities found, he said it all made sense. Fountains' monks had little choice but to be "pioneering farmers and land managers on an industrial scale."

The radar study was done in collaboration with other institutions, notably the University of Bradford. The technology provides "stunning, unexpected, and intriguing glimpses" into life at the abbey, according to Chris Gaffney, an archaeological sciences professor.

It was the biggest tannery unearthed at a monastery site in Britain, according to the trust, and was considered as a "missing link" in the abbey's history, which lasted from the early 12th century until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539.

"With a place like Fountains, it's so easy to think this is exactly how the monks saw it," Newman said. "What we're discovering is that there's a whole history that hasn't been recognized."

Thanks to Mark Brown at The Guardian whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.