Vale Royal Abbey
| Monastery information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | The Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin, St Nicholas, and St Nicasus, Vale Royal |
| Other names | Vale Royal Abbey |
| Order | Cistercian |
| Established | 1270/1277 |
| Disestablished | 1538 |
| Mother house | Dore Abbey |
| Dedicated to | Virgin Mary, St Nicholas, St Nicasus |
| Diocese | Diocese of Lichfield |
| Controlled churches | Frodsham, Weaverham, Ashbourne, Castleton, St Padarn's Church, Llanbadarn Fawr |
| People | |
| Founder(s) | Edward I |
| Important associated figures | Edward I, Thomas Holcroft |
| Site | |
| Location | Whitegate, Cheshire, United Kingdom |
| Visible remains | Foundations of the church, surviving rooms within later house, earthworks. Gate chapel survives as parish church |
| Public access | No, the abbey is now a private golf club |
Vale Royal Abbey is a medieval abbey, and later a country house, located in Whitegate, between Northwich and Winsford in Cheshire, England.
The abbey was founded in 1270 by Edward I for monks of the austere Cistercian order. The king intended the abbey to be on the grandest scale, however, financial difficulties meant that these ambitions could not be fulfilled and the final building was considerably smaller than planned. The project ran into problems in other ways too; the abbey was frequently grossly mismanaged, relations with the local population were so poor as to result in large scale violence on a number of occasions and internal discipline was frequently bad.
Vale Royal was closed in 1538 by Henry VIII as part of the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Much of the abbey, including the church, was demolished but some of the cloister buildings were incorporated into a mansion by Thomas Holcroft, an important government official, during the 1540s. Over subsequent centuries this house was considerably altered and extended by successive generations. The building remains habitable and contains surviving rooms from the medieval abbey, including the refectory and kitchen. The foundations of the church and cloister have also been excavated. It is a scheduled ancient monument, and recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.
The abbey we now know as Vale Royal was founded by Prince Edward, the future Edward I, prior to his accession to the throne. In 1263 the prince was undertaking a sea voyage from France when his ship was caught in a terrible storm. He then made a vow that if he came safe to land he would found an abbey of unprecedented size and grandeur as a thanksgiving to God for saving him. Political problems and civil war meant that the vow could not be fulfilled immediately, but by 1266 negotiations were in hand for the establishment of a monastery of Cistercian monks in the secluded location of Darnhall in Cheshire. In August 1270, Edward granted a charter to his new abbey along with an endowment of lands and churches.
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