The ruins emerge from bushes as you approve on a gravel path, dwarfing the neighbouring church, and towering over the pasture surrounding them.

Built around 1117 by Robert de la Haye as a satellite “cell” of the abbey at Lessay in Normandy, The Benedictine priory of St Mary the Virgin and St Blaise housed just three monks in its early years.

You can still see detail in the ruins, faces and decoration poking out from the ancient stonework, giving a sense of the craft and the sacred intent of the builders.

The music suggested itself – an update of early polyphony carrying forward into dissonance just as the priory was abandoned during the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

The “bells” on the recording are a manipulated sample from gently tapping the stonework.

Here’s the track: