The 12th century Parish Church at Hailes was built before the adjacent abbey. One of its medieval wall paintings shows a hunting scene, with a hunter and three hounds cornering their prey. Hailes Abbey was founded by the Cistercians in 1246. Its wealth came from the wool trade, but also from a phial it possessed, which was said to contain the blood of Christ. Eventually this was proved to be a fake but the Abbey had drawn pilgrims from far and wide to see its phial. A museum in the Abbey shows how excavations from the site have been able to illustrate how wonderful the abbey once was.