Croxden Abbey

Croxden Abbey is a Cistercian abbey located in Croxden, near Uttoxter, in Staffordshire. It was a daughter house of the abbey in Aunay-sur-Odon, Normandy.

Bertram de Verdun, lord of the manor of Croxden, endowed a site for a new abbey near Alton, Staffordshire, in 1176 for a group of 12 Cistercian monks. The monks remained at this site until 1179 when they moved to a better site in Croxden. The abbey prospered and expanded well into the 13th century. By 1315, the monks were supplying more wool into the continent than any other religious house in the country.

In the 14th century, fortunes changed for the abbey. Royal taxation increased, bad harvests and plague drained the abbeys resources. Thomas de Furnivalle became the patron of the abbey and took control of the lands and property. The monks disputed this and barricaded themselves within the abbey for sixteen weeks in 1319, until their property usage was returned to them.

The abbey was dissolved in 1537, with the King granting the monks a pension.

In 1936 the ruins of the abbey passed into the care of the Ministry of Public Building and Work. Today it is in the care of English Heritage.