120 CROXDEN ABBEY. 



year this is said, " A second pestilence took place, and all 

 the children that were born since the first pestilence died." 

 In 1367, Alexander de Colbeley, who succeeded Richard 

 de Schepished, and of whom nothing else is related, was 

 deposed: on the day thereof, 13th January, 1367, William 

 de Gunston was elected abbot by the whole convent. The 

 abbot of Alnet sent a commissary to visit Croxden at this 

 time, its affairs being in confusion, the debts amounting to 

 152 marks eight shillings and elevenpence. 



In 1368 there was a great scarcity of grain : one bushel 

 of wheat was worth in London two shillings and more, 

 one of barley twenty-pence, and two bushels of oats twenty- 

 pence. In 1369, was a third pestilence. In the same year 

 they began to sell the wood of Grete, and the sale lasted 

 for three years. Also the house called Botelston fell down 

 from the church, as far as the door of the aula or hall, 

 except three couples, and in the next year it was rebuilt 

 in large timber, and covered with nineteen and a-half marks' 

 worth of shingles. In 1372 the ditches were made at a 

 total cost of seven marks. In the same year a heavy flood 

 destroyed all the grass growing near the water, and all the 

 bridges across the Churnet were totally destroyed. Also in 

 the same year a tempest in the daytime took the lead off 

 the dormitory, infirmary, and abbot's chamber, and threw 

 down half the trees in the orchard, and thirty oaks at Grete, 

 and the large granary of Musden. This last was rebuilt 

 the next year. In 1374 the last recorded work at the 

 Abbey was done, namely, three corners of the cloisters were 

 repaired, and both the north and west walls near the church 

 were roofed in anew, and also the church with " clamp 

 irons." Thus ends the Chronicle of William de Schepished, 

 monk of the Abbey of Croxden 



