The Holy Blood of Hailes

For 270 years, pilgrims flocked to this abbey to venerate a phial said to contain the blood of Christ. Henry VIII's commissioners declared it nothing more than honey coloured with saffron. Hailes Abbey was founded in 1246 by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of King Henry III, after he survived a shipwreck and vowed to build a monastery in thanksgiving. Twenty monks and ten lay brother...