In 1176, Bertram III de Verdun, the lord of the manor of Croxden, endowed a site for a new abbey near Alton, Staffordshire, to a group of 12 Cistercian monks from Aunay-sur-Odon, Normandy.

Bertram founded the abbey, like many noblemen of his time, for the souls of his family and on the condition that the monks would celebrate mass for the souls of Norman de Verdun, my father, and of Lescelina, my mother, and of Richard de Humez, who brought me up, and of my predecessors; and for the well-being of myself and Rohais my wife, and my successors;[1][2] The monks remained at the Alton site until 1179, before moving to land near Croxden, a few miles south.

Grants of land were made by Bertram de Verdun to the abbey across Staffordshire, Cheshire, Derbyshire and Leicestershire, along with the churches of Alton and Tugby, and two chapels at Keythorpe and East Norton.

[2] The abbey continued to expand into the 13th century, with King John awarding the monks an annuity of £5 from the Exchequer of Ireland in 1200, before exchanging it for land in Adeney, Shropshire, in 1206.

The strains of royal taxation, the repayment of loans and the imposition of a corrodian combined with bad harvests and plague were a drain on the abbey's resources.

[2] Two 16th-century deeds relating to the abbey's property, just prior to its dissolution, are held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.