Orderic Vitalis and William of Malmesbury were invited to the Abbey in the twelfth century, by the abbot Geoffrey of Orleans, who had previously been the prior of Saint Evroul, following a devastating fire in 1091.

[2] While here Orderic not only wrote a monastic history from the time of Guthlac, but also edited a vita of the saint, and composed an account of the death of Earl Waltheof of Northumbria, whose body was laid to rest there.

During the English Civil War the remains of the abbey were fortified and garrisoned by Royalists in 1642 under governor Thomas Stiles.

Crowland is well known to historians as the probable home of the Croyland Chronicle of Pseudo-Ingulf, begun by one of its monks and continued by several other hands.

John Clare wrote a sonnet entitled "Crowland Abbey", which was first published in The Literary Souvenir for 1828 and reprinted in his last book, The Rural Muse in 1835.

[8] A team of students from Newcastle and Sheffield Universities worked on Anchor Church Field in Crowland for several weeks in 2021 and uncovered some exciting finds – including a high status medieval building.

[11] Crowland Abbey is claimed to have been the first church in England – and among the first in the world – to have a tuned peal or ring of bells (circa 986).