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Cleeve was a Cistercian abbey founded at the end of the 12th century. In common with all monastic houses in England it was dissolved by Henry VIII in 1536 shortly after which the abbey church was dismantled. Unusually, however, the cloister has remained remarkably intact giving visitors a particularly good insight into monastic life in the middle ages. The buildings were used as a private house and later a farm ; in the late 19th century the site was acquired by George Luttrell who did a great deal of work to preserve the remaining fabric and opened it to the public. The abbey passed to the state in 1951 and is now in the guardianship of English Heritage.