AN order of Benedictine nuns has received backing for a monastery.

They won the support of the North York Moors National Park's planning committee, which was told it would be the first monastery in the county for centuries, and would stand in the shadow of Ampleforth Abbey.

The application is subject to approval from the Government Office in Leeds.

North York Moors National Park's planning committee backed the plan, described by members as "iconic", for a meadow at Crief Farm, Wass.

The Conventus of Our Lady of Consolation is moving from Stanbrook Abbey, in the Malvern Hills, Worcestershire, which has been its home for more than a century.

Sister Anna, spokesman for the order said: "We didn't particularly look at North Yorkshire, but we found ourselves being drawn to it because of the monastic tradition of such places as Byland and Rievaulx Abbeys, and Ampleforth."

Chief planning officer Val Dilcock said it was the most significant and bold plan to be submitted to park planning officers for years.

She and her staff have encouraged the architects and the nuns to develop an "unashamedly modern" building, which will include a church, 26 cells and a library where Benedictine documents could be housed.

However, because the scheme is a departure from the park's local plan, it needs approval from the Government Office for Yorkshire before the authority can agree detailed conditions with the order.

There had been some opposition to the scheme from The Friends of Stanbrook Abbey, which questioned where the funds would be found to build the monastery.

Other opponents said it could lead to other religious communities moving to the National Park.