CROXDEN ABBEY, STAFFORDSHIRE. THE ruins of the Abbey of Crokesden, or Croxden, in the county of Stafford, stand in a sequestered valley about three miles west from the village of Rocester, which is situated on the turnpike-road from Ashburne, in Derbyshire, to Uttoxeter, in Staffordshire, at the distance of about eight miles from Ashburne, and five from Uttoxeter. Bertram de Verdon, an eminent baron, whose castle and principal residence was at Alveton (now commonly called Alton), about a mile and a half from Croxden, in the year of our Lord 1176 gave to the Cistertian monks of Aulney, in Normandy, a piece of ground at Chotes (probably Coten, now written Cotton, a member of the manor of Alveton), to build an Abbey of that order upon but the establishment was, three years afterwards, removed to Crokesden, so that it is very likely a design was entertained, only, of such a foundation at Chotes. The monastery of Crokesden was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and styled "Abbatia valle b. Mariæ de Croxden." At the dissolution of monasteries it had an abbot and twelve monks, whose yearly revenues were, in CROXDEN ABBEY. the 26th Henry VIII. according to Dugdale, £90: 5:11 and, according to Speed, £103:6:7. The scite of this monastery was granted, in the 36th Henry VIII. to Godfrey Foljambe, esq. who died without legitimate issue, in the first year of queen Elizabeth, and left it to Godfrey Foljambe, alias BrownJowe, his bastard son. |