Monastery information | |
---|---|
Full name | The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, St Nicholas, and St Nicasius, Vale Royal |
Other names | Vale Royal Abbey |
Order | Cistercian |
Established | 1270/1277 |
Disestablished | 1538 |
Mother house | Dore Abbey |
Dedicated to | Virgin Mary, St Nicholas, St Nicasius |
Diocese | Diocese of Lichfield |
Controlled churches | Frodsham, Weaverham, Ashbourne, Castleton, St Padarn's Church, Llanbadarn Fawr |
People | |
Founder(s) | Edward I |
Important associated figures | Edward I, Thomas Holcroft |
Site | |
Location | Whitegate, Cheshire, United Kingdom |
Coordinates | 53°13′29″N 2°32′33″W / 53.2247°N 2.5426°W |
Visible remains | Foundations of the church, surviving rooms within later house, earthworks. Gate chapel survives as parish church |
Public access | None |
Vale Royal Abbey, a medieval abbey and later a country house, is in Whitegate (between Northwich and Winsford) in Cheshire, England. The abbey was founded in 1270 by Prince Edward for monks of the austere Cistercian order. Although Edward intended the abbey to be built on a grand scale, financial difficulties prevented his ambitions from being fulfilled; the final building was considerably smaller than planned, and the project also encountered other problems. The abbey was frequently grossly mismanaged, relations with the local population were poor enough to spark outbreaks of large-scale violence on a number of occasions, and internal discipline was frequently bad.
Vale Royal was closed in 1538 by Henry VIII as part of his Dissolution of the Monasteries. Although much of the abbey (including the church) was demolished, some of the cloister buildings were incorporated into a mansion by government official Thomas Holcroft during the 1540s. The mansion was considerably altered and extended by successive generations of Holcrofts. Vale Royal came into the possession of the Cholmondeley family during the early 1600s, and remained a seat of the family for over 300 years. Sold after the Second World War, it was turned into a private golf club. The building remains habitable, with surviving rooms from the medieval abbey (including the refectory and kitchen), and the foundations of the church and cloister have been excavated. Vale Royal Abbey, a scheduled ancient monument,[1][2] is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II* listed building.[3]
Foundation
The abbey now known as Vale Royal was originally founded in Darnhall by Prince Edward, the future Edward I, before his accession to the throne. Supposedly caught in extremely rough weather (which made the prince and his entourage fear for their lives), Edward made a vow to the Virgin Mary to found an abbey in her name if they were saved. According to a chronicler, the sea calmed almost immediately and the ships returned peacefully to England. When the last man had stepped ashore, the chronicler continues, the storm resumed more violently than ever and Edward's ship was destoyed in the harbour.[note 1] The dates do not fit with what is known, however; King Edward only went on a crusade once, in 1270, not returning until his father Henry III died in 1272. By that time, Darnhall Abbey's foundation charter had already been granted. The charter mentions the king being "sometime in danger upon the sea",[4], and it has been suggested by a recent biographer that it refers to a stormy English Channel crossing during the 1260s.[5][6][note 2] Michael Prestwich, however, has noted a crusader connection for Edward's new foundation. The first charter concerned with the project is dated four years earlier than the foundation charter, in August 1270. This was just before Edward left on crusade, and Prestwich suggests that it although he probably founded the abbey as a request, it was for future protection and not because he was rescued.[6] Political problems and civil war prevented the vow from being fulfilled immediately, but by 1266 negotiations were completed for the establishment of a Cistercian monastery in the secluded location of Darnhall in Cheshire.[8] This consisted of a manor house and estate of the earls of Chester, now in royal hands.[9] In August 1270, Edward granted a charter to his new abbey with an endowment of land and churches.[10]
Habitation and closure
Things did not go smoothly. Preparing the site took considerable time, and the first monks—led by Abbot John Chaumpeneys[8]—did not arrive at Darnhall from Dore Abbey (which remained Vale Royal's motherhouse)[11] until 1274.[10] The new abbey provoked anger, resentment and resistance from the people of the region, who believed that it (and its land) impinged on them;[12] the abbey received the forestry rights and free warren of Darnhall Forest, which surrounded the villages.[8]
The Darnhall site was soon found unsuitable for the large buildings planned.[8][10][note 3] It may have been intended as a temporary site;[13] in 1276, Edward (now king) agreed to move the abbey to a better site. A location was chosen in nearby Over, on the edge of the Forest of Mondrem, and was named Vale Royal. On 13 August 1277, the king and Queen Eleanor, their son Alphonso[note 4] and a number of nobles[note 5] arrived at Over to lay the foundation stones of the new abbey[8] for the high altar.[9] Chaumpeneys then said a celebratory mass.[15] In 1281, the monks moved from Darnhall to temporary accommodations on the Vale Royal site while the abbey was built. It was intended to be the largest and most elaborate Cistercian church in Christian Europe.[16]
On the present landscape, the precise location (and boundaries) of the abbey are difficult to determine. It was broadly within the monks' new manor of Conersley, on parcels of land which were renamed Vale Royal. The southern boundary was probably around Petty Pool, past Earnslow, to the Weaver (and the abbey's fishponds), following the river to Bradford Mill. Its total area was about 400 acres (160 ha).[13]
Estates and finances
The village of Over was the natural centre of the abbey's estates, and was (like the surrounding villages) under the abbot's feudal lordship.[17] The abbey's original endowment at Darnhall included the Delamere Forest site, the manors in Darnhall, Langwith in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and the advowsons of Frodsham, Weaverham, and Ashbourne and Castleton.[8] These included Conewardsly (granted in 1276), followed in 1280 by distant Wirral lands. They received manors belonging to members of the local gentry in 1285, including those of Hugh de Merton (around Over), Bradford and Guilden Sutton.[17] Ashbourne, was not held for long; within a few years, Vale Royal was forced to cede the advowson to Lincoln Cathedral for £400. In exchange, the king arranged in 1280 for Vale Royal to receive the wealthy Kirkham Priory. Then in the possession of Shrewsbury, a combination of royal pressure and legal chicanery forced Shrewsbury to renounce its rights. According to Jeffrey Denton, "Even [Vale Royal's] own chronicler cast some doubt on the justice of these proceedings".[18] The abbey had a glassmaking forge, which earned a small profit.[13]
Wool exports, however, were the abbey's main source of income. In 1283, Abbot Chaumpeneys acknowledged receipt of 53s 6d 8p as an advance on the abbey's eventual delivery of twelve sacks of collecta.[note 6] These transactions were paid for before the merchant sold the wool, with the proviso that the profit was returned to the monastery.[21] By the mid-1330s, Abbot Peter calculated that the abbey's income was £248 17s, of which £60 was spent on hospitality;[note 7] £16 was wages for the abbey's servant staff, £21 expenses for the abbot, £30 for defensive measures, and £50 in "gifts, damages and contributions."[17] The remainder—insufficient, said Abbot Peter in 1336—was spent on the monks' everyday needs.[17] By 1342, under Abbot Robert de Cheyneston, the abbey was £20 in debt and a fire had burnt down its monastic granges at Bradford and Hefferston; the monks, who lost all the corn in the granges, had to purchase enough to live on until the next harvest.[24] Robert lamented the £100 he required to repair the granges, their weirs, portions of the church roof and the abbey building.[17]
Vale Royal's finances seem to have improved by the 15th century. Two taxes assessed the abbey at £346 0s. 4d in 1509 and, twenty-six years later, at £540 6s 2d.[8] Income was up, and expenses were down; about £92 was spent in 1509, and slightly over £21 in 1535. Although the abbey was wealthy in goods and oxen, it had many fewer monks then originally intended; the abbot of Dore, visiting Vale Royal in 1509, found fifteen resident monks instead of a reported population of thirty.[16]
Construction
During its 1958 excavation, the site of the abbey—still heavily wooded and similar to its medieval appearance—was described as
on the left bank of the river Weaver, 2½ miles southwest of Northwich. It stands on level ground from which there is a fairly rapid slope northwards down to the river, a factor which must have assisted considerably in the natural drainage of the heavy clay subsoil.[25]
— F. H. Thompson, Excavations at the Cistercian Abbey of Vale Royal, Cheshire, 1958
King Edward had great ambitions for Vale Royal. It was intended to be an important abbey, surpassing all the other houses of its order in Britain in scale and beauty and symbolic of the wealth and power of the English monarchy and Edward's piety and greatness.[10] Edward intended the abbey to be more grandiose than his grandfather King John's abbey at Beaulieu.[26] For Edward, the project was comparable to his father's Westminster Abbey; Henry had planned to be buried at Westminster, and Edward may have had similar plans for himself at Vale Royal.[27] Vale Royal Abbey was his largest and only such act of piety; he neither founded nor funded any other houses.[28] The building plans reflected Edward's enthusiasm. Fifty-one[29] masons from around the country, under the leadership of Walter of Hereford (one of the foremost architects of his day),[10][note 8]began work on a huge, elaborate High Gothic church the size of a cathedral.[31] It had thirty copes, two silver crosses, six chalices, a gold collar,[clarification needed] a silver pastoral staff and other valuable possessions.[17] It was planned to be 116 metres (381 ft) long and cruciform in shape, with a central tower.[31] The east end was semi-circular, with a chevet of 13 radiating chapels—some square, some polygonal. Each of the transepts had a row of three chapels on its eastern side.[31] South of the church stood a cloister 42 metres (138 ft) square, surrounded by the domestic buildings of the house (which would match the church in scale and grandeur).[31] The undermaster of the works from 1278 to 1280 was John of Battle, who would construct the king's memorial crosses after Eleanor's death.[32] The design would be apsidal.[33] According to contemporary accounts for 1277 to 1281, 35,000 cartloads of stone—over 30 per day—were brought nine miles from quarries at Eddisbury.[34] Timber came from local forests—particularly Delamere—to build workshops and dwellings.[9][note 9] These[clarification needed] cost 45 shillings,[29] and a total of £3,000 was spent on construction during these years.[30]
The king greatly expanded the initial endowment, and made large donations of cash and materials.[8] Initially providing 1,000 marks in cash for the project, Edward also provided the monks with revenue from his earldom of Chester; in 1281, the Justice of Chester was instructed to disburse the same amount to the monks each year.[13] Two years later, sufficient progress had been made to allow the new church to be consecrated by Bishop of Durham Anthony Bek; Edward and his court attended the service.[13] The king donated a relic of the True Cross which he had captured on his crusade as part of the abbey's endowment.[35]
However, things soon began to go wrong. During the 1280s, the royal finances fell into arrears and eventually collapsed. Edward needed money for his war in Wales and workmen to build his great castles, such as Harlech, which cemented his conquest. He took the money which had been set aside for Vale Royal and its masons and other labourers.[36] This was around the time that construction began on the monks' cloister, which would have marble columns shipped from the south of England.[16]
In 1290, Edward announced that he was no longer interested in the abbey: "The King has ceased to concern himself with the works of that church and henceforth will have nothing more to do with them."[37] Although the reason for his volte-face is unknown, historians have speculated that the monks may have incurred his displeasure or it was the result of the illness and death of Queen Eleanor in November of that year.[37] Once-large royal grants became meagre.[38] The monks struggled to complete and run the vast project,[39] a task which was beyond their means. Despite a substantial income, the abbey amassed large debts to other church institutions, royal officials, building contractors and the merchants of Lucca.[8][note 10] Funds may have been misappropriated.[16] Work stopped for at least a decade after 1290, resuming on a much-reduced scale.[8]
14th century
By the 1330s, the monks had completed the east end of the church—the rest remained a shell—and enough of the cloister buildings to make the abbey habitable (although far from complete);[31] much of the main vault was exposed to the Cheshire weather.[26] Royal funding had nearly dried up, and Abbot Peter complained in 1336 that vaults, cloisters, the chapter house and dormitories were yet to be built.[9]
The abbot and the community of monks moved from their temporary wooden lodgings, then "unsightly and ruinous," into the new monastic buildings. Much work still needed to be done; the vaults, roof, cloisters, chapter house, dormitory, refectory and other offices either needed to be completed or else started.[17]
A. J. Bostock and S. M. Hogg
In 1353, there was cause for renewed hope. Edward the Black Prince—King Edward III's son and heir (now the Earl of Chester)—was fully invested in his father's wars in France, and Cheshire was an important source of troops. The prince lavishly patronised the county's gentry and institutions, with Vale Royal (described by Anthony Emery as an "extravagant 'war' church") foremost among them.[40] Edward had nominally taken Vale Royal (Valreal in his writ) under his protection in 1340,[41] was keen to see abbey completed, and donated substantial funds:[8][31] 500 marks in cash immediately, with the same amount paid five years later[17] when the prince visited Vale Royal.[8] In 1359, Prince Edward granted Vale Royal the advowson and church of Llanbadarn Fawr, Ceredigion to further finance construction.[16][note 11] William Helpeston was contracted to oversee construction[33] in August 1359,[39] which was expected to take six years.[16] The choir was completed during the first year.[40]
Work began to complete the shell of the nave and develop the east end, based on the design of Toledo Cathedral.[16] During a massive October 1359 storm, however, much of the nave (including a new lead roof installed by the previous abbot) was blown down and destroyed; the arcades of the unfinished nave were reduced to rubble.[43] The destruction ranged "from the wall at the west end to the bell-tower before the gates of the choir," and the timber scaffolding collapsed "like trees uprooted by the wind."[44]
Repairs were slowly made over the next thirteen years, and Abbot Thomas may have been responsible for the "unique chevet of seven radiating chapels".[45] Work was still being done in 1368 when the Prince of Wales recommissioned the masons.[16] The remodelled church would be smaller than before,[45] with the nave reduced in height and width.[16] This was the result of an agreement under the patronage of Richard II (since the abbey was a royal foundation)[39] to finish the abbey on a much-reduced scale from its original plans:[46] shorter in length and lower in height.[47]
Repairs and construction continued sporadically into the 15th century, with an aisle installed in the middle of the church in 1422.[45] Little else is known about the abbey until the 16th century.[41]
Relations with tenants
No woman was able to marry outside the manor or outside her conditions of bondage without permission and a charge; when a woman became pregnant she had to make a payment to the lord; men and women coud be punished for sins committed or else make a suitable payment; none could work for another without the lord's consent but were required to work for him at his will; the holding and working of land outside the manor was restricted...and, lastly, peasants were not allowed to dispose of their property by means of will or gift as their goods belonged to their lord.[48]
A. J. Bostock and S. M. Hogg
In addition to the burden of trying to finish the abbey buildings, Vale Royal faced other serious problems. From the beginning, the monks' relationship with their tenants and neighbours was usually poor (and sometimes abysmal).[12][49][note 12] The initial foundation was resented by the people of Darnhall and Over, who found themselves under the lordship of the abbey. This made the previously-free tenants villeins.[note 13] Tenants of Darnhall attempted to withdraw from paying the abbot in 1275 (only a year after the abbey's foundation), and continued to feud with Vale Royal's abbots over the next fifty years.[49] The dispute was probably caused by forestry rights; the new abbey was in the forest of Mondrem, which had been mostly common land until it was granted to the abbey. Keeping it common land would have prevented the monks from utilising it, so the abbey received immunity from the foresting laws (almost certainly over-reaching itself).[16][note 14]
Abbots were also feudal lords, and not necessarily sympathetic landlords because of their ecclesiastical position; when their tenants appeared before the abbot's manorial court, they appeared before a judge and common law applied.[56] The monks may have been oppressive landlords, with the people responding fiercely to what historian Richard Hilton called a form of "social degradation."[57] If the abbey was as poor as assumed, the monks may have had to be harsh landlords;[58] they apparently undertook their duties as landlords with zeal.[59] It is impossible, however, to ascertain if the abbey was as locally tyrannous as the villagers claimed. Previous earls of Chester may have been lax in their enforcement of serfdom, and the two villages became accustomed to their relative freedom. The monks may have been lax in enforcement, and the villagers of Darnhall and its surrounding area saw an opportunity to take advantage of them.[60] The villagers prosecuted their struggle in earnest, sometimes in law and sometimes with violence.[61][48] They attacked monastic officials a number of times; a monk was attacked and a servant killed while collecting tithes in Darnhall in 1320 (under Abbot Richard of Evesham),[49] and Abbot Peter was killed in 1339 wile defending the abbey.[62]
Relations with the gentry were no better, and they also often came to blows with the monks. The abbey was involved in feuds with a number of the prominent local families, frequently ending in large-scale violence.[62] During the 14th and 15th centuries, Vale Royal was beset by other scandals. Many of the abbots were incompetent, venal, or criminally inclined,[note 15] and the house was often grossly mismanaged. Discipline grew lax; disorder at the abbey during the 14th and early 15th centuries prompted reports of serious crimes, including attempted murder. Abbot Henry Arrowsmith, with a reputation for lawlessness, was hacked to death in 1437 by a group of men (which included the vicar of Over) in revenge for an accusation of rape. Although the abbey was taken under royal supervision in 1439, there was no immediate improvement. The Vale Royal monks attracted the attention of the government and the General Chapter, the international Cistercian governing body, during the 1450s. The chapter ordered senior abbots to investigate the abbey, which they described as "damnable and sinister", in 1455. Things improved somewhat, and Vale Royal's last years were fairly peaceful and well-ordered.[8]
The Abbot of Dore visited Vale Royal in 1509 and made a brief inventory of its rooms, including the Abbot's chambers (which were described as containing "a suitable couch, ten coverlets, four mattresses, two feather beds and twelve pairs of linen sheets").[41] According to archaeologist S. J. Moorhouse, luxuries such as these indicate how far the Cistercian focus had drifted from the order's original asceticism.[41]
Dissolution
The abbey was reported in the 1535 Valor Ecclesiasticus with an income of £540, making it the wealthiest of the 13th-century Cistercian monasteries and the fourth-wealthiest overall.[63] The income enabled Vale Royal to escape dissolution under the First Suppression Act, King Henry VIII's initial move in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The last abbot was John Hareware (elected 1535), former abbot of Hulton Abbey. He pursued a two-pronged policy of attempting to ensure the abbey's survival and, if that failed, the security of himself and his brethren. Hareware bribed courtiers, influential nobles and (in particular) chief minister Thomas Cromwell with money and property in an attempt to gain a respite for the abbey, and leased most of the abbey lands to friends and associates of the monastery to keep them out of royal hands if the abbey fell; many of the leases had a clause voiding them if the abbey survived. Hareware sold its other assets, such as livestock and timber, for cash.[8]
The process of dissolution at Vale Royal was begun in September 1538 by royal commissioner Thomas Holcroft,[8] who was ordered to "take and recyve" the abbey.[64] The situation grew murky as Holcroft, probably with a forged signature on the deed of exchange,[65] claimed that the abbey had surrendered to him on 7 September. The abbot (and abbey) denied doing so, questioning Holcroft's authority. Holcroft then alleged that the abbot had attempted to take over the abbey himself, and tried to conspire with Holcroft to commit land fraud involving the abbey estates.[8] The Vale Royal monks petitioned the government—Thomas Cromwell in particular, who was in charge of church affairs in his role as vicar general during the Royal Supremacy. Abbot John appealed to Cromwell in person, writing to the chief minister during his journey to London:
My Good Lord, the truth is, I nor my said brethren have never consented to surrender our monastery not yet do, nor never will by our good wills unless it shall please the King's grace to give us commandment to do so.
In December 1538, Abbot John and his community received a papal dispensation to change habits and temporarily join another order.[65] With some disquiet probable in government circles about the legitimacy of the Vale Royal surrender, steps were taken to put the matter beyond doubt. A special court was held at the abbey on 31 March 1539, with Cromwell the judge. Instead of investigating the circumstances of the surrender, however,[66] the court charged the abbot with treason and conspiracy in the murder of a monk who may have committed suicide in 1536[65] and accused him of "treasonous utterances" during the Pilgrimage of Grace; both were capital crimes.[note 16] The abbot was found guilty, and Vale Royal was declared forfeited to the crown.[66] Abbot John was not executed, however; he was given a substantial pension of £60 per year and the abbey's plate, indicating that the trial was a means of pressuring him to acquiesce to Cromwell and Holcroft's wishes about the monastery.[8][66] The rest of the community were also pensioned off, and pension records indicate that Abbot John lived until at least 1546.[8]
Later history
After the protracted negotiations,[64] Thomas Holcroft was in charge of Vale Royal. Previously an obscure member of the lower Cheshire gentry, the purchase made him a man of substance and enabled him to found his own line of descendants.[68] In 1539 he demolished the church, telling King Henry in a letter that it was "plucked down".[31][note 17] On 7 March 1544, the king confirmed Holcroft's ownership by granting him the abbey and a lot of its estates for £450.[31][70] Holcroft then took down many of the abbey's domestic buildings, retaining the south and west cloister ranges—including the abbot's house and the monks' dining hall and kitchen—as the core of his mansion[31] (which was centred on the abbey cloister).[64]
Holcroft's heirs lived at Vale Royal until 1615, when the abbey came into the hands of the Cholmondeley family (subsequently the Lords Delamere).[71] Mary Cholmondeley (1562–1625), a powerful widow with extensive properties in the area, bought the abbey as a home for herself when her eldest son inherited the primary family estates at Cholmondeley. In August 1617, she entertained James I and a stag-hunting party at Vale Royal.[66] The king enjoyed himself so much that he knighted two members of the family, and offered to advance the political careers of Lady Mary's sons if they would come to court in a letter shortly afterwards. The offer was so firmly refused that the king called her "the Bolde Lady of Cheshire".[72] Mary passed the abbey and estate to her fourth son, Thomas (who founded the family's Vale Royal branch), at her death in 1625.[73]
During the English Civil War, the Cholmondeleys supported Charles I.[73] Their allegiance had serious consequences; fighting took place at Vale Royal, the abbey was looted, and the building's south wing was burned down by Parliamentarian forces commanded by General John Lambert.[74]
Despite this disaster, the Cholmondeley family continued to live in the abbey. A southeast wing, designed by Edward Blore, was added to the building in 1833. In 1860, Hugh Cholmondeley, 2nd Baron Delamere commissioned Chester architect John Douglas to recast the centre of the south range (which had been timber-framed). Douglas added a southwest wing the following year, altering the dining room.[75] The church of St Mary, the capella extra portis (chapel outside the abbey gates), is opposite its west lodge. It was largely rebuilt in 1728, incorporating fabrica ecclesiae from a timber-framed church probably dating to the 14th century. In 1874–1875 Douglas remodelled the church, changing its external appearance but retaining much of the internal structure.[76]
The Cholmondeley family lived in the abbey until 1907, when Vale Royal was rented to wealthy Manchester businessman Robert Dempster.[77] Dempster had made his fortune from R & J Dempster and Sons, a gas-engineering company he founded in 1883. His second daughter, Edith, was born that year; however, he never had a son. Edith lived at Vale Royal with her father until his death in 1925 in South Africa. He was buried at Whitegate Church, near the abbey. Edith inherited half of his fortune and all of his personal effects, including the lease on Vale Royal. In the spring of 1926, she married Frank Pretty at Whitegate Church. Edith gave up the lease on Vale Royal and purchased the relatively-modest Sutton Hoo estate later that year. Frank died at the end of 1934; Edith hired archaeologist Basil Brown to excavate some of the mounds on the Sutton Hoo estate in 1939, discovering northern Europe's richest Anglo-Saxon burial ground.[78]
Another Cholmondeley, Thomas, Baron Delamere, moved into the abbey in 1934; he was forced out in 1939, when the government took over Vale Royal to use as a sanatorium for soldiers during World War II.[77] The Cholmondeleys regained the abbey after the war before selling it to Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) in 1947.[79] The company initially used the abbey as staff accommodation and, from 1954 to 1961, as the headquarters of its salt[39] and alkali division.[80] During ICI's tenure, they permitted (and assisted with labour and facilities) a 1958 archaeological excavation in 1958 to complete a 1911–1912 dig.[25]
ICI moved out in 1961, and for some years the future of Vale Royal was in doubt. There were abortive schemes to use the abbey as a health centre, a country club, a school and a prison. In 1977, the abbey became a residential care home for people with learning disabilities.[80] Since 1998, Vale Royal has been a private golf club.[81] A proposal to turn the house into flats led to a detailed 1998 archaeological study by the Chester Archaeological Society.[69]
Remains
Nothing remains of the great church and "virtually nothing"[82] of any other of the ecclesiastical buildings, though archaeological work has revealed many details of its structure.[1] According to Emery, "detailed examination of the roof...has revealed hidden structural evidence beneath layers of post-medieval changes".[82] Excavations by the Manchester architect Basil Pendleton took place 1911–1912,[26] which he focussd arounfd the Nun's Grave. He established that the church had been 421 feet (128 m) long, with a decoratively floored 92-foot (28 m) nave. The width of the east and west transepts together was 232 feet (71 m).[16] The rest of the construction was, at various times in its career, built around a grassed quadrangle (possibly also serving as a herb garden), 140 feet (43 m) square. These consisted, apart from the church (which took up the east side of the square), of a chapter house,[note 18] the abbot's dwelling, accommodation for guests, and various outbuildings necessary for the domestic upkeep of the community and its agricultural work.[85]
Much of the Abbey's stonework had been sold by Holcroft on its destruction.[39] Some was used to build a common well,[64] and at least one domestic garden in Northwich was found possessed of original carvings and bosses,[86] and stones from the Abbey were found in the walls of three other houses.[64] Holcroft had also rebuilt the western grange with stone form the church for his own use.[33] The south wing of the extant building at Vale Royal incorporates the original refectory roof, which has been dendrochronologically dated to the latter half of the 15th century. It consisted, says Emery, "of a timber-framed three-bay hall, open to the roof, flanked by a pair of single bay rooms, the whole set above a masonry ground floor".[82] Further excavation took place in 1958 and uncovered the 1359 additions, including detail such as the chevets.[26] Also discovered were pieces of stained glass, Purbeck marble and other architectural fragments.[33]
The historian Jeffrey Denton has suggested that the reason Vale Royal Abbey is relatively undiscussed in scholarship is the direct result of Holcroft's "plucking" in the mid-16th century, and that "had it survived, our views of Edward I's relations with the Church may well have been radically different."[87] A circular stone monument, known as the 'Nun's Grave', traditionally commemorates a 14th-century Cheshire nun, Ida, who tended an unnamed sick Vale Royal abbot, and on her death was buried at the site of the high altar.[16] The monument was erected by the Cholmondeley family, possibly to lend credence to the legend of the nun. The material in its construction comes from three sources: the head made from a medieval cross with four panels depicting the Crucifixion, the Virgin and Child, St. Catherine, and St. Nicholas; the shaft, made of sandstone in the 17th century; and a plinth made from reclaimed abbey masonry.[88] The present country house on the site incorporates parts of the south and west ranges;[89] the former has a door arch from the abbey, one of the few elements of the original abbey still visible.[39] Holcroft's Tudor house is also well-represented. The building is a Grade II* listed building,[3] and St Mary's church is listed at Grade II.[89]
See also
- Abbot of Vale Royal
- Grade II* listed buildings in Cheshire West and Chester
- Listed buildings in Whitegate and Marton
- List of houses and associated buildings by John Douglas
- Round Tower Lodge
Notes
- ^ The chronicler describes the train of events in some detail: "While [Edward] was on his way to England, accompanied by a great concourse of people, storms suddenly arose at sea, the ship's rigging was all torn to pieces in a moment, and the crew were helpless and unable to do anything. Utterly despairing of their safety, the sailors called loudly upon the Lord ...[Edward] most humbly vowed to God and the Blessed Virgin Mary that, if God would save him and his people and goods, and bring them safe to land, he would forthwith found a monastery of white monks of the Cistercian order in honour of Mary the Mother of God ... for the maintenance of one hundred monks for ever. And behold, the power of God to save His people was forthwith made manifest; for scarce had the most Christian prince finished speaking when the tempest was utterly dispersed and succeeded by a calm, so that all marvelled at so sudden a change. Thus the ship ... was miraculously borne to land by the Virgin Mary, in whose honour the prince had made his vow, without any human aid whatsoever ... until they had all carried their goods safe out of the ship, the prince remained behind them in the ship, but as soon as the ship was empty, he left it and went on shore; and as he left, in the twinkling of an eye, the ship broke into two pieces."[4]
- ^ Sir James Ramsay was more specific, dating the crossing to the period between Christmas and New Year's 1263 (when Edward sailed from Calais to Dover ahead of his father, who is known to have travelled on 2 January 1264.[7]
- ^ It has also been suggested that the original site was uncomfortably distant from a freshwater source sufficient for a large community; Darnhall was on Ash Brook (a minor waterway), and Vale Royal was near the River Weaver and its two substantial tributaries.[13]
- ^ Alphonso was Edward and Eleanor's eighth child and, by 1277, their only surviving son (and heir to the throne).[14]
- ^ Including the earls of Gloucester, Cornwall, Surrey, and Warwick; Maurice de Craon, Otto de Grandson and Robert de Vere[8]
- ^ Wool the abbey gathered from outside its estate, such as local farms. The distinction was important to merchants, since abbey wool was the only wool perceived as reliable in quality.[19] Historian T. H. Lloyd described the process at Darnhall Abbey in 1275, when the monks contracted "to supply 12 sacks of Herefordshire collecta as good as the better collecta of Dore Abbey. The wool was to be dressed at Hereford by a man sent and probably paid, by the merchant, but the abbey was to find his board while he engaged in the work. The price of this wool was only 9 marks a sack, including delivery to London".[20]
- ^ Hospitality was a primary duty for those under Benedictine rule, such as the Cistercians; St Benedict taught, "Let all guests be received as Christ himself".[22] However, "the cost of entertaining guests on ceremonial occasions hosted by the community was considerable."[23]
- ^ Walter de Hereford received a wage of two shillings per day; according to the Victoria County History, this was equivalent to about £700 per year in 1980.[30]
- ^ Since Vale Royal was isolated, the dwellings were for the workers as well as the monks.[29]
- ^ The abbey had experienced financial problems since its foundation; although it had been granted a licence in 1275 to sell wool to pay for construction, seven years later the abbey owed £172 to merchants. By 1311, £200 was still owed to a custodian of the works from a 1284 debt.[8]
- ^ This, a common practice beginning in the 14th century, was a convenient device to relieve a religious house of its debts; according to historian F. R. Lewis, 539 such grants were made during Edward III's reign.[42]
- ^ The extent to which this concerned the monks, particularly in the early years, has been questioned. Cistercians, it has been noted, "were not normally too bothered by that as they had a reputation as de-populators and often uprooted whole communities."[17]
- ^ During the early Middle Ages, villeins were serfs who were tied to the land they worked and could not leave (or stop working) the land without permission from the lord of the manor. By the late 14th century, villeinage was less burdensome than it had been two centuries earlier; heavy labour was no longer required. It was still possible, however (and Vale Royal Abbey was party to this), for a lord to insist on one-third of a tenant's goods at the latter's death.[50] Since they were not freemen, villeins did not have recourse to trial by jury.[51][52][53] "Despite the light labour services associated with villein tenure, there is no doubt that the personal and financial liabilities could weigh heavily."[54] Villagers in Darnhall and Over were required to pay "redemption" to the abbey when a daughter married.[55]
- ^ This involved the right to clear forest land for agricultural purposes and to remove timber and branches.[48]
- ^ Abbot Stephen (in office 1373 - c. 1400) was involved in violent fighting with the Bulkeley family of Cheadle in 1375. He provided sanctuary to a convicted murderer in 1394; was regularly accused of preventing the arrest or prosecution of his monks; accepted bribes to allow prisoners to escape, and illegally felled trees for profit. In 1395, a commission discovered that he had impoverished the abbey over the previous decade by selling, alienating, and destroying its estates. Two of Stephen's monks were accused of theft and rape, respectively.[8]
- ^ The abbot was accused of condoning the murder of Brother Hugh Chalner. According to the prosecution, Chalner had told his 12-year-old nephew that he was leaving the abbey to join the boy's father in Chester and feared for his life in Vale Royal. The following day, Chalner was found dead with his throat cut.[67]
- ^ According to J. Patrick Greene, "The Tudor purchasers of dissolved monasteries were often looking for buildings that would form the basis of a country house surrounded by a ready-made estate."[69] Holcroft was an exception to this rule in Cheshire, however; unlike the rest of the country, most of the ecclesiastical land remained in the hands of the crown or helped form the recently-created Diocese of Chester.[68]
- ^ The Chapter house has been described as "a place second in importance to the church itself," and was where the main business of the abbey took place, both religious (being where the monks read chapters of St Benedict's teachings, giving the building its name, and, peculiar to this order, Cistercian monks made public confession to each other here)[83] and especially administrative[84] (the manorial court was held there, for example).[17]
References
- ^ a b Historic England & 72883.
- ^ Historic England & 1016862.
- ^ a b Historic England & 1160862.
- ^ a b Brownbill 1914, pp. v–x.
- ^ Prestwich 2004.
- ^ a b Denton 1992, p. 124.
- ^ Ramsay 1908, p. 210.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u VCH 1980, pp. 156–165.
- ^ a b c d Turner & McNeil-Sale 1988, p. 53.
- ^ a b c d e Robinson et al. 1998, p. 192.
- ^ Williams 1976, p. 14.
- ^ a b Brownbill 1914, p. vi.
- ^ a b c d e f Bostock & Hogg 1999, p. 1.
- ^ Prestwich 1988, p. 126.
- ^ Powicke 1991, p. 412.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bostock & Hogg 1999, p. 2.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Bostock & Hogg 1999, p. 3.
- ^ Denton 1992, p. 131.
- ^ Bell, Brooks & Dryburgh 2007, p. 51.
- ^ Lloyd 1977, p. 296.
- ^ Bell, Brooks & Dryburgh 2007, p. 28.
- ^ Kerr 2008, p. 25.
- ^ Kerr 2007, p. 188.
- ^ Donnelly 1954, p. 443.
- ^ a b Thompson 1962, p. 183.
- ^ a b c d Steane 1993, p. 164.
- ^ Palliser 2004, p. 5.
- ^ Denton 1992, pp. 123–124.
- ^ a b c Greene 1992, p. 71.
- ^ a b VCH 1980, p. 192.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Robinson et al. 1998, p. 193.
- ^ Steane 1993, p. 50.
- ^ a b c d Turner & McNeil-Sale 1988, p. 52.
- ^ Greene 1992, p. 70.
- ^ Greene 1992, p. 95.
- ^ Platt 1994, p. 65.
- ^ a b Palliser 2004, p. 6.
- ^ Prestwich 2003, p. 35.
- ^ a b c d e f Thompson 1962, p. 184.
- ^ a b Emery 2000, p. 472.
- ^ a b c d Turner & McNeil-Sale 1988, p. 54.
- ^ Lewis 1938, pp. 24–25.
- ^ Lewis 1938, p. 25.
- ^ Colvin 1963, p. 256.
- ^ a b c Midmer 1979, p. 315.
- ^ VCH 1980, pp. 1156–165.
- ^ Thompson 1962, p. 185.
- ^ a b c Bostock & Hogg 1999, p. 5.
- ^ a b c Hewitt 1929, p. 166.
- ^ Bennett 1983, p. 92.
- ^ Harding 1993, pp. 74–76.
- ^ Faith 1999, pp. 245–265.
- ^ Hatcher 1987, pp. 247–284.
- ^ Booth 1981, pp. 4–5.
- ^ CCC 1967, p. 89.
- ^ Hewitt 1929, p. 168.
- ^ Hilton 1949, p. 128.
- ^ Firth-Green 1999, p. 166.
- ^ Morgan 1987, p. 77.
- ^ Brownbill 1914, p. 186.
- ^ Hilton 1949, p. 161.
- ^ a b Heale 2016, p. 260.
- ^ Denton 1992, p. 129.
- ^ a b c d e Guinn-Chipman 2013, p. 30.
- ^ a b c Guinn-Chipman 2013, p. 17.
- ^ a b c d Holland et al. 1977, p. 19.
- ^ Guinn-Chipman 2013, pp. 17–18.
- ^ a b Phillips & Smith 1994, p. 21.
- ^ a b Greene 1992, p. 191.
- ^ Holland et al. 1977, p. 37.
- ^ Holland et al. 1977, p. 20.
- ^ Holland et al. 1977, p. 21.
- ^ a b Holland et al. 1977, p. 22.
- ^ Holland et al. 1977, p. 23.
- ^ Hubbard 1991, p. 40.
- ^ Hubbard 1991, p. 124.
- ^ a b Holland et al. 1977, p. 32.
- ^ Hopkirk 1975, pp. xxxvi–xxxviii.
- ^ Holland et al. 1977, pp. 25, 32.
- ^ a b Holland et al. 1977, p. 25.
- ^ VRA 2008.
- ^ a b c Emery 2000, p. 42.
- ^ Stalley 1999, p. 188.
- ^ Hamlett 2013, p. 117.
- ^ Bostock & Hogg 1999, p. 4.
- ^ Turner & McNeil-Sale 1988, pp. 51–52.
- ^ Denton 1992, p. 124.
- ^ Latham 1993, p. 127.
- ^ a b Historic England & 1160911.
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(help) - Colvin, H. (1963). The History of the King's Works. Ministry of Public Building and Works. Vol. I. London: H.M. Stationery Office. OCLC 10780171.
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(help) - Denton, J. (1992). "From the Foundation of Vale Royal Abbey to the Statute of Carlisle: Edward I and Ecclesiastical Patronage". In P. R. Coss (ed.). Thirteenth Century England IV: Proceedings of the Newcastle Upon Tyne Conference 1991. Thirteenth Century England. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer Ltd. pp. 123–139. ISBN 978-0-85115-325-4.
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(help) - Donnelly, J. (1954). "Changes in the Grange Economy of English and Welsh Cistercian Abbeys, 1300–1540". Traditio. 10: 399–458. OCLC 557091886.
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(help) - Emery, A. (2000). Greater Medieval Houses of England and Wales, 1300-1500: East Anglia, Central England and Wales. Vol. II. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52158-131-8.
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(help) - Greene, J. Patrick (1992). Medieval Monasteries. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 978-0-82647-885-6.
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(help) - Hamlett, L. (2013). "The Twin Sacristy Arrangements in Palladio's Venice: Origins and Adaptions". In Avcioglu, N.; Jones, E. (eds.). Architecture, Art and Identity in Venice and its Territories, 1450–1750: Essays in Honour of Deborah Howard. London: Routledge. pp. 105–126. ISBN 978-1-35157-595-9.
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(help) - Harding, A. (1993). England in the Thirteenth Century. Oxford: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52131-612-5.
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(help) - Hatcher, J. (1987). "English Serfdom and Villeinage: Towards a Reassessment". In T. H. Aston (ed.). Landlords, Peasants and Politics in Medieval England. Cambridge University Press. pp. 247–285. ISBN 978-0-52103-127-1.
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(help) - Heale, M. (2016). The Abbots and Priors of Late Medieval and Reformation England. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19870-253-5.
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(help) - Hilton, R. H (1949). "Peasant Movements in England before 1381". The Economic History Review. New Series. 2. OCLC 47075644.
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(help) - Historic England. "Vale Royal Abbey (1016862)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- Historic England. "Vale Royal Abbey (1160862)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- Historic England. "Vale Royal Abbey (72883)". Research records (formerly PastScape). Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- Historic England. "Church of St Mary, Whitegate and Marton (1160911)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- Holland, G. D.; Hickson, J. N.; Vose, R. Hurst; Challinor, J. E. (1977). Vale Royal Abbey and House. Winsford: Winsford Local History Society. OCLC 27001031.
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(help) - Hopkirk, Mary (1975). Bruce-Mitford, Rupert (ed.). The Sutton Hoo Ship-Burial: Excavations, Background, the Ship, Dating and Inventory. Vol. I. London: British Museum Publications. pp. xxxvi–xxxviii. ISBN 978-0-71411-334-0.
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(help) - Hubbard, Edward (1991). The Work of John Douglas. London: The Victorian Society. ISBN 978-0-90165-716-9.
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(help) - Kerr, J. (2007). Monastic Hospitality: The Benedictines in England, C.1070-c.1250. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-326-0.
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(help) - Kerr (2008). "Cistercian Hospitality in the Later Middle Ages". In Burton, J. E.; Stöber, K. (eds.). Monasteries and Society in the British Isles in the Later Middle Ages. Woodbrige: Boydell & Brewer Ltd. pp. 25–39. ISBN 978-1-84383-386-4.
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(help) - Latham, F. A., ed. (1993). Vale Royal. Whitchurch, Shropshire: The Local History Group. OCLC 29636689.
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(help) - Lewis, F. R. (1938). "The History of Llanbadarn Fawr, Cardiganshire, in the Later Middle Ages". Transactions and archaeological record of the Cardiganshire Antiquarian Society. 12. OCLC 690106742.
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(help) - Lloyd, T. H. (1977). The English Wool Trade in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-52121-239-7.
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(help) - Midmer, R. (1979). English Medieval Monasteries 1066 - 1540. London: Heineman. ISBN 978-0-43446-535-4.
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(help) - Platt, C. (1994). Medieval England: A Social History and Archaeology from the Conquest to 1600 AD. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41512-913-8.
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(help) - Morgan, P. (1987). War and Society in Medieval Cheshire, 1277–1403. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-71901-342-3.
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(help) - Palliser, D. M. (2004). "Royal Mausolea in the Long 14th Century, 1272–1422". In Ormorod W. M. (ed.). Fourteenth-Century England. Woodbridge: Boydell Press. pp. 1–15. ISBN 978-1-84383-046-7.
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(help) - Phillips, C. B.; Smith, J. H. (1994). Lancashire and Cheshire from AD1540. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-31787-167-5.
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(help) - Powicke, F. M. (1991). The Thirteenth Century, 1216–1307 (2nd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19285-249-6.
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(help) - Prestwich, M. (1988). Edward I. Yale English Monarchs. London: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-52006-266-5.
{{cite book}}
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(help) - Prestwich, M. (2003). The Three Edwards: War and State in England 1272–1377. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-13441-311-9.
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(help) - Prestwich, M. (2004). "Edward I (1239–1307)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 11 June 2018. Retrieved 11 June 2018.
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suggested) (help) - Ramsay, J. H. (1908). The Dawn of the Constitution: Or, the Reigns of Henry III and Edward I (A.D. 1216-137). London: Oxford University Press. OCLC 499117200.
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(help) - Robinson, David; Burton, Janet; Coldstream, Nicola; Coppack, Glyn; Fawcett, Richard (1998). The Cistercian Abbeys of Britain. London: Batsford. ISBN 978-0-71348-392-5.
{{cite book}}
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(help) - Stalley, R. A. (1999). Early Medieval Architecture. Oxford History of Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19284-223-7.
{{cite book}}
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(help) - Steane, J. (1993). The Archaeology of the Medieval English Monarchy. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-13464-159-8.
{{cite book}}
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(help) - Thompson, F. (1962). "Excavations at the Cistercian Abbey of Vale Royal, Cheshire, 1958". The Antiquaries Journal. 42: 183–207. OCLC 759094243.
{{cite journal}}
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(help) - Turner, R. C; McNeil-Sale, R. (1988). "An architectural and topographical study of Vale Royal Abbey". Journal of the Chester Archaeological Society. 70: 51–79. OCLC 899973718.
{{cite journal}}
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(help) - VCH (1980). Elrington, C. R.; Harris, B. E. (eds.). Houses of Cistercian monks: The abbey of Vale Royal. Victoria County History. Vol. 3. London: University of London & History of Parliament Trust. ISBN 978-0-19722-754-1.
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(help) - VRA, ed. (2008). "Vale Royal Abbey Golf Club".
{{cite web}}
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(help) - Williams, D. H. (1976). White Monks in Gwent and the Border. Pontypool: Hughes and Son. ISBN 978-0-95004-906-9.
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External links
- Information on the abbey from the Sheffield University site about Cistercian abbeys in the UK
- The Ledger Book of Vale Royal abbey: the main record book of the abbey. First published by the Record Society of Lancashire and Cheshire in 1914 – full-text version as part of British History Online
- Information about the stained glass from the Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (CVMA) of Great Britain