The Abbey of St. Mary at Stanlaw (or Stanlow as it has been posthumously known since a Victorian cartographical error), was a Cistercian foundation situated on Stanlaw - now Stanlow Point, on the banks of the River Mersey in the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire, England (grid reference SJ427773 ), near Ellesmere Port, 11 km north of Chester Castle and 12 km south-west of Halton Castle.
The abbey was founded in 1178 by John fitz Richard, Baron of Halton and Hereditary Constable of Chester, as a daughter abbey of Combermere Abbey. [1] In August 1277, King Edward I of England stayed there for three nights.
Stanlaw Abbey was in an exposed situation near the Mersey estuary and it suffered from a series of disasters. In 1279 it was flooded by water from the Mersey and in 1287 during a fierce storm, its tower collapsed and part of the abbey was destroyed by fire. The monks appealed to the pope for the monastery to be moved to a better site and thus, with both papal consent and the agreement of Edward I and Henry de Lacy, 10th Baron Halton, they moved to Whalley near Clitheroe, Lancashire. [2] This move took place in 1296. [3] [4] However, a small cell of monks remained on the site until the Reformation, [2] the site becoming a grange of Whalley Abbey. [5] The remains of the abbey lie on Stanlow Island marooned between the Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal. [6] The standing remains include two sandstone walls and a re-used doorway, and the buried features include part of a drain leading to the River Gowy. These remains are recognised as a scheduled monument. [5] [7]
The abbey was purchased by Mr John Wright (previously of The Wheelwright Public House, Elton, Cheshire) who turned the building into three dwellings for some of his children. The family resided on Stanlow until a compulsory purchase order was placed on the island to make way for the oil refinery.
Roger de Lacy, John de Lacy and Edmund de Lacy, respectively the 7th, 8th and 9th Barons of Halton, were buried at Stanlow. [8]
Basingwerk Abbey is a Grade I listed ruined abbey near Holywell, Flintshire, Wales. The abbey, which was founded in the 12th century, belonged to the Order of Cistercians. It maintained significant lands in the English county of Derbyshire. The abbey was abandoned and its assets sold following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1536.
Jervaulx Abbey in East Witton in North Yorkshire, 14 mi (23 km) north-west of the city of Ripon, was one of the great Cistercian abbeys of Yorkshire, England, dedicated to St Mary in 1156. It is a Grade I listed building.
Ince is a village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It is situated immediately to the east of the Stanlow Oil Refinery. It shares Ince & Elton railway station with the village of Elton, which it runs into.
Sawley Abbey was an abbey of Cistercian monks in the village of Sawley, Lancashire, in England. Created as a daughter-house of Newminster Abbey, it existed from 1149 until its dissolution in 1536, during the reign of King Henry VIII.
de Lacy is the surname of an old Norman family which originated from Lassy, Calvados. The family took part in the Norman Conquest of England and the later Norman invasion of Ireland. The name is first recorded for Hugh de Lacy (1020–1085). His sons, Walter and Ilbert, left Normandy and travelled to England with William the Conqueror. The awards of land by the Conqueror to the de Lacy sons led to two distinct branches of the family: the northern branch, centred on Blackburnshire and west Yorkshire was held by Ilbert's descendants; the southern branch of Marcher Lords, centred on Herefordshire and Shropshire, was held by Walter's descendants.
Vale Royal Abbey is a former medieval abbey and later country house in Whitegate, England. The precise location and boundaries of the abbey are difficult to determine in today's landscape. The original building was founded c. 1270 by the Lord Edward, later Edward I, for Cistercian monks. Edward had supposedly taken a vow during a rough sea crossing in the 1260s. Civil wars and political upheaval delayed the build until 1272, the year he inherited the throne. The original site at Darnhall was unsatisfactory, so was moved a few miles north to the Delamere Forest. Edward intended the structure to be on a grand scale—had it been completed it would have been the largest Cistercian monastery in the country—but his ambitions were frustrated by recurring financial difficulties.
Whalley Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey in Whalley, Lancashire, England. After the dissolution of the monasteries, the abbey was largely demolished and a country house was built on the site. In the 20th century the house was modified and it is now the Retreat and Conference House of the Diocese of Blackburn of the Church of England. The ruins of the abbey are recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and are a Scheduled Ancient Monument.
Combermere Abbey is a former monastery, later a country house, near Burleydam, between Nantwich, Cheshire and Whitchurch in Shropshire, England, located within Cheshire and near the border with Shropshire. Initially Savigniac and later Cistercian, the abbey was founded in the 1130s by Hugh Malbank, Baron of Nantwich, and was also associated with Ranulf de Gernons, Earl of Chester. The abbey initially flourished, but by 1275 was sufficiently deeply in debt to be removed from the abbot's management. From that date until its dissolution in 1538, it was frequently in royal custody, and acquired a reputation for poor discipline and violent disputes with both lay people and other abbeys. It was the third largest monastic establishment in Cheshire, based on net income in 1535.
The Barony of Halton, in Cheshire, England, comprised a succession of 15 barons and hereditary Constables of Chester under the overlordship of the Earl of Chester. It was not an English feudal barony granted by the king but a separate class of barony within the County Palatine of Chester.
Henry de Lacy, Earl of Lincoln, Baron of Pontefract, Lord of Bowland, Baron of Halton and hereditary Constable of Chester, was an English nobleman and confidant of King Edward I. He served Edward in Wales, France, and Scotland, both as a soldier and a diplomat. Through his mother he was a great-grandson of Amadeus IV, Count of Savoy. He is the addressee, or joint composer, of a poem by Walter of Bibbesworth about crusading, La pleinte par entre missire Henry de Lacy et sire Wauter de Bybelesworthe pur la croiserie en la terre seinte.
Kirkstead Abbey is a former Cistercian monastery in Kirkstead, Lincolnshire, England.
Roger de Lacy (1170–1211), Baron of Pontefract, Lord of Bowland, Lord of Blackburnshire, Baron of Halton, Constable of Chester, Sheriff of Yorkshire and Sheriff of Cumberland, also known as Roger le Constable, was a notable Anglo-Norman soldier, crusader and baron.
The timeline of Cheshire history shows significant events in the history of the English county of Cheshire.
John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln was hereditary Constable of Chester, 7th Baron of Pontefract, 8th Baron of Halton and 8th Lord of Bowland.
Marland Grange in Marland, Rochdale, Lancashire, was a monastic grange founded before 1212. It was a dependency of the Cistercian Stanlow or Stanlaw Abbey in Cheshire, founded in 1178, and of Stanlow's successor from 1296, Whalley Abbey in Lancashire. The grange was still active in 1324. Whalley was dissolved, and its assets disposed of, in 1537, including the abbot's property in Marland. It is not explicitly recorded whether the grange was still active by then, but if it were, it would also have been suppressed and disposed of at that point.
Poulton Chapel was a medieval chapel in the hamlet of Poulton, Cheshire, England, close to the modern border with Wales. It was built around 1153 by the monks of Poulton Abbey. After the monks moved to Dieulacres between 1199 and 1214 and the abbey was turned into a farming estate for the monks, the chapel served as a one room church for the lay brothers working the land. In the 1487 the chapel was expanded when the estate was leased to the Manley family. During the English Civil War (1642-1651) the chapel was used as a stable and lookout. By 1672 it lay in ruins and by 1718 it was demolished. No above ground structures are extant.
John fitz Richard was an Anglo-Norman soldier, Baron of Halton and hereditary Constable of Chester. Historical records refer to him as "John, Constable of Chester". He died at Acre in the Holy Land.
The Constable of Chester was a mediaeval hereditary office held by the Barons of Halton. The functions of the Constable are unclear, possibly they related to the custody of Chester Castle, as was the main function of most mediaeval constables, but Sanders (1960) says the office-holder was constable for the entire County Palatine.
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