passed on to his son. Around 1753, Fulke Grenville, sold Sawley to the Weddell family of Newby Hall who were in possession at the start of the 18th century. Thomas de Grey, 2nd Earl de Grey was the site's owner in 1848. By this time much of the abbey's remains were hidden beneath mounds of rubbish and soil. Earl de Grey had much of the site cleared under the direction of J. R. Walbran, assisted by local unemployed men. They revealed the floor of the church and chapter house, uncovering six gravestones. The house must also have been demolished around this time, and the wall that encloses the site today must have been constructed some time after. At the roadside north of the church is an archway containing a considerable quantity of decorated medieval stonework. It was reconstructed in 1962 from stone taken from a nearby demolished gateway, one of two constructed over the road around 1848 for Earl de Grey, using stones removed from the abbey site. Ownership followed the de Gray Earldom to George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon, who was in possession by 1878. In 1934, the Sawley estate was purchased by J. E. Fattorini of Bradford for £81,285 (the equivalent of £ as of ). In 1951 the area of the monastery passed into the guardianship of the Secretary of State. In March 2009, Sawley Abbey was featured in the first episode of series 3 of the TV series The Tudors. Layout The core of the abbey consisted of a four-sided complex built around a courtyard measuring , known as the cloister. The entire abbey site was in an enclosed religious precinct covering and surrounded by a ditch and earthen bank, possibly topped with a stone wall. The entrances to the precinct seem to have been located near the south-east and north-west corners, where gatehouses were presumably located. The inner court appears to have been located on the south and east sides of the cloister, with the outer court on west and north sides. The church was aligned east-west and formed the northern range of the cloister. The transept is and both the north and south sides have three chapels along the eastern wall. On the northern side the is an exterior doorway and on the southern an entrance to the night stairs, which provided access from the monks' quarters. The original nave measured approximately in