With stone hard to come by in the county of Hampshire, the abbey was built mainly using stone brought in from neighbouring Dorset, the Isle of Wight and even as far afield as Caen in France.
The central core of the monastery was surrounded by a walled precinct containing gardens, fishponds (several of which still survive close to the abbey buildings),[REF] orchards, barns, guesthouses, stables, a farmyard and industrial buildings.