544 Stanley Abbey. 



country, and in 1148 the union with Savigny added thirteen 

 more English houses to the number. Although an order of 

 General Chapter in 1151 prohibited the foundation of any more 

 houses, the next hundred years saw twenty-eight new abbeys of 

 the Order built in this country, and with four later foundations the 

 total number in England and Wales was brought up to seventy-six. 

 To various English abbeys twenty-three houses in other countries 

 owe their origin, viz. eleven in Scotland, ten in Ireland, and two 

 in Norway. 



Though there were nuns of the Cistercian order, the origin of 

 their various houses was not dependent upon one another as those 

 for monks. There were some twenty-six of these establishments 

 in England and "Wales. 



Three years after the foundation of Drownfont,the monks removed 

 to Stanley, a place in the King's manor of Chippenham,^ owing ap- 

 parently to the exposed position of the first settlement. Buildings 

 were begun in stone on the new site, and in 1204 the convent had 

 increased sufficiently to be able to send out a colony to Ireland to 

 occupy an abbey founded at Graignamanagh.^ The monks seem 

 to have had difficulty in obtaining a good water supply at Stanley, 

 for in 1214, Thomas Calstone, the abbot, completed an aqueduct 

 from the old supply at Lockswell to his new house.^ 



The early buildings were, like those at the mother house of 

 Quarre, begun to be rebuilt for no apparent reason within fifty 

 years of their foundation. In 1241, the abbot and convent ex- 

 changed part of their quarry at Hazelbury in Box parish with the 

 canonesses of Lacock for their quarry at the same place, which 

 was bought of Henry Crook some years befoie.'* 



' Monasticon Anglicanum, v. 563. 



- Originiim Cisferciensium (Vinderbone, 1877), 210. In consequence of 

 colonising this abbey without leave of the General Chapter Ralph the abbot 

 of Stanley was deposed. (Bod. MS., vide Bowles' Bremhill, 119.) 



^ Bod. MS., vide Bowles, 119. " Hoc anno (1214) perfectus est aqufeductus 

 ^e Lokeswelle versus abbatiam de Stanley in Wilts, a domino Thoma de 

 Colestune, abbati ejusdem domus, et illud opus timide incepit sed Deo et 

 Domino Jesu Christo sibi auxilienti et bono Johanne Evangelista bene et 

 optime complevit cujus memoria in benedictione sit aeterna. Amen. 

 * Lacock Cartulary, t, 30, b. 



