132 CROXDEN ABBEY. 
Nearly all that is known of the history of the Abbey is 
gained from the Chronicle, which is mainly the work of 
William de Schepished, one of the monks at the end of the 
fourteenth century.* According to this Chronicle, it was, 
during Advent in 1178, ‘‘ordained that the monks should 
praise the name of the Lord in another place.” I do not 
know by what means the said monks were led to this 
conclusion, but however it was they removed to Croxden. 
Little or nothing can have been done towards building at 
that time, for as far as I know, there are no remains in 
the style of architecture then prevalent. The actual plan 
of the building was, however, probably then arranged, 
because the first Abbot, Thomas, who died in 1229, was 
buried in the Chapter House, and about the same time 
Nicholas de Verdun, the son of the founder, was buried 
before the high altar. Under the fifth Abbot, Walter de 
London, who was elected in 1242, the greater part of the 
building was erected, and in what still exists of the church 
we see the work which was dedicated in 1253. The archi- 
tecture is, without doubt, of the 13th century. During the 
abbacy of Walter de London there were built the gates, half 
the church, the chapter house, the refectory, the kitchen, the 
infirmary with the cloister there, and a wing—probably occu- 
pied by the novices, over which was the monks’ dormitory. 
The sites of all these places are still to be distinguished— 
(see Ground Plan.) Probably these buildings were erected 
mainly at the expense of the De Verdun family, who con- 
tinued to be the great patrons of the Abbey. In the time of 
John de Billysdon, who was elected abbot in 1286, the west 
wing was added. This consisted of a cellarium, or store 
*In the ‘‘ Month,” the well known Roman Catholic Magazine, a series 
of articles on Croxden Abbey, by W. H. Grattan Flood, was published— 
the first in the number for June, 1894. The writer gives many interesting 
extracts from the Chronicle or ‘‘Annals’’ above referred to, which he says 
is in the British Museum among the Cottonian M.S.S., marked Faustina 
Be Wi. 
