38 History of the 



abbey was founded by John, sixth Baron of Halton, and Constable 

 of Chester, in the year 11 78, being the 24th of Henry II., on the 

 eve of his departure for the Holy Land, where he died in the year 

 1190. "The site was singularly inauspicious, and probably owed 

 its selection to the austere and mortified views of the founder on 

 the approach of his meditated crusade. In 1279, according to the 

 Chronicle of St. Werburgh, the sea (or Mersey) broke in upon the 

 house and did the Religious incredible injury. In 1287 the great 

 tower of their church fell in a violent storm, and in 1289 the 

 greater part of the Abbey perished in a conflagration, and the sea 

 again inundated their lands. On a representation of their accumu- 

 lated calamities to Pope Nicholas the Fourth, the Abbot and 

 Convent obtained permission to remove to Whalley in Lancashire, 

 where their munificent patron, Henry de Lacy, had given them a 

 new and more fertile site. This auspicious event took place in the 

 year 1296, and Stanlaw continued to be a cell to the Abbey of 

 Whalley (as it had formerly been reputed a filial dependency of 

 Combermere) until the suppression of that house, when it was 

 granted to Sir Richard Cotton, whose son sold it, anno 13th Eliza- 

 beth, to Sir John Poole, of Poole, in whose descendant it is now 

 vested." (a) 



About the year 1200, during the reign of King John, Roger de 

 Lacy, one of the lords of the Honor of Clitheroe, granted to the 

 monastery, along with other valuable donations, that portion of 

 Rossendale known as Brandwood ; {b) and, as a result of this gift, 

 the district so named, by being cleared and cultivated, was the first 

 part of the Forest which was rendered suitable for the habitation of 

 man. 



The following is a copy of the deed granting the land in 

 question, with other important and interesting documents having a 

 local bearing. It is given in the " Coucher Book " of Whalley 

 Abbey, leaf 82, the following being a translation : — 



(a) Canon Raines. Notitia Cestriensis, vol. i. pp. 82-3 (1845.) 



(6) Brandwood : brent, burnt. Brentwood, firewood from the forest. 



