Abbey Hulton is an area of

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, England, named after the

abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns. The conce ...

that existed between the 13th and 16th centuries.

History

The name Abbey Hulton is derived from 'hilltown' (Anglo-Saxon ''hyll'' + ''tūn''; Middle English ''hil'', ''hull'' + ''toun''; 13th & 14th century ''Hulton'') with the addition of 'abbey' from the Cistercian abbey founded here in 1223. It is recorded in the ''

Domesday Book Domesday Book () – the Middle English spelling of "Doomsday Book" – is a manuscript record of the "Great Survey" of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086 by order of King William I, known as William the Conqueror. The manusc ...

'' of 1086-87 as ''Heltone'', in Pirehill

Hundred 100 or one hundred (Roman numeral: C) is the natural number following 99 and preceding 101. In medieval contexts, it may be described as the short hundred or five score in order to differentiate the English and Germanic use of "hundred" to de ...

, when it was held by Robert of Stafford.

Henry de Aldithley Henry Audley (or Aldithel or Alditheley; c. 1175–1246) was an English baron. Audley was a royalist baron, born about 1175 to Adam de Alditheley and Emma, daughter of Ralph/Radulphus fitzOrm. His father Adam held Alditheley ( Staffordshire) fro ...

(or Audley) endowed the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

Abbey of St. Mary at Hulton, near the site of

Heleigh Castle Heighley Castle (or Heleigh Castle) is a ruined medieval castle near Madeley, Staffordshire. The castle was completed by the Audley family in 1233 and for over 300 years was one of their ancestral homes. It was held for Charles I during the E ...

in 1223, donating a large amount of land, some of which was an inheritance from his mother and some of which was purchased. The endowment consisted of the villages of Julton and Rushton to the south of Burslem with "Manesmore", a wood at Sneyd, all Henry's land at Bucknall and Anormancot, a meadow called "bukkeley", and in the northeast of the county the village of Mixon and the "vills and tenements" of Bradnop, Middle Cliff, Apesford, "Ruhegh", and "Mulnesley" with a pasture at Morridge and a wood at "Witherward." The grant also included a yearly pension of 10 marks from Audley church. Later in 1232 Henry made a new grant of the vills of Mixon and Bradnop (probably additional land in these manors) with the services of all the inhabitants within 5 years of the death of Ranulph, Earl of Chester. This grant was given in exchange for the saying of mass by 13 monks "all the days of the world" for the souls of Ranulph (Henry's overlord, the Earl of Chester who died in 1232), Henry, Henry's predecessors and successors, and all the faithful departed. All the remainder of his life Henry de Aldithley was considered a patron of the monks at Hulton.

Hulton Abbey Hulton Abbey is a scheduled monument in the United Kingdom, a former monastery located in what is now Abbey Hulton, a suburb of Stoke-on-Trent. A daughter house of the Cistercian Combermere Abbey, the abbey was founded by Henry de Audley in th ...

received other gifts from the Aldithley family and other local lords over the next centuries. Compared to the other great Abbeys of England, Hulton was small and poor. The monks engaged in agriculture, raised sheep and operated a tannery (making leather). It was taken apart (disbanded) in 1538 and its lands sold.

References

Monasteries in Staffordshire Areas of Stoke-on-Trent Villages in Staffordshire Christian monasteries established in the 13th century {{Staffordshire-geo-stub