The Abbey of St. Mary at Stanlaw (or Stanlow as it has been posthumously known since a Victorian cartographical error), was a

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 ...

foundation situated on Stanlaw - now Stanlow - Point, on the banks of the River Mersey in the Wirral Peninsula,

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England (), near today's Ellesmere Port, 11 km north of Chester Castle and 12 km south-west of Halton Castle.

History

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. 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 Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassal o ...

and Henry de Lacy, 10th Baron Halton, they moved to Whalley near Clitheroe, Lancashire. This move took place in 1296. However, a small cell of monks remained on the site until the Reformation, the site becoming a

grange Grange may refer to: Buildings * Grange House, Scotland, built in 1564, and demolished in 1906 * Grange Estate, Pennsylvania, built in 1682 * Monastic grange, a farming estate belonging to a monastery Geography Australia * Grange, South Austral ...

of Whalley Abbey. The remains of the abbey lie marooned between the Mersey and the

Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follows the original routes of the river ...

. 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. 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.

Burials

Roger de Lacy, John de Lacy and Edmund de Lacy, respectively the 7th, 8th and 9th Barons of Halton, were buried at Stanlow.

References

{{authority control Religious organizations established in the 1170s Monasteries in Cheshire Cistercian monasteries in England Scheduled monuments in Cheshire Christian monasteries established in the 12th century 1178 establishments in England Burial sites of the De Lacy family

History

Burials

See also

References