Since 757 AD, three different churches have occupied the site of today’s Abbey: first, there was an Anglo-Saxon Abbey Church, pulled down by the Norman conquerors of England soon after 1066. Then, a massive Norman cathedral was begun about 1090 but was larger than the monastery could afford to maintain and by the end of the 15th century was in ruins. Finally, the present Abbey church was founded in 1499, the last of the great medieval churches of England.