[5] Muskham's chronicle places the origins of the abbey early in the previous century and credits the initiative not to a monastic order or member of the landowning class but to a local working man.

He was told to follow the girl to Deepdale and so quickly arrived at his destination, described as locum palustrem valde terribilem longeque ab omni habitacione hominum separatum[10] — "a marshy place, extremely frightening, and far from human habitation."

The local landowner is named as Ralph Fitz Geremund, lord of a moiety of the manors of Ockbrook and Alvaston cum soc, i.e., holder of soke, the right and duty to constitute a court.

The hermit suffered spiritual torment in his later years, said by the chronicler to be the assaults of antiquus autem generis humani inimicus milleartifex[13] – "the ancient enemy of human kind, master of a thousand tricks," that is, Satan.

An Augustinian colony from Calke became established at Deepdale, comprising six canons in total: the Humfrid mentioned earlier by Muskham, who was the prior; Nicholas and Simon, who had both studied in Paris with William de Grendon, Serlo's son, known as "the cleric;" two others, whose names were forgotten; and Richard the chaplain.

However, they found the arable land insufficient to support them, as the site was hemmed in to the south by Boyah, where Serlo de Grendon had a probably new "mansion:" the Latin original is villula, which suggests just a small house or farmstead.

William de Grendon donated the Deepdale site, along with six shillings in rents, by charter to the Stanley Park church of St Mary, for the good of his own soul and that of his brother Jordan,[50] and his grant was confirmed by Geoffrey and Matilda.

[46] However, there are considerable problems with the chronology and order of events – partly because the relevant royal confirmation charters and papal bulls are missing from the cartulary – that make an entirely satisfactory account of the foundation of Dale Abbey impossible.

[74] Geoffrey, who opposed John, King of England in the First Barons' War, died by 1229, when Matilda made an agreement with Abbot Walter to provide her with board and lodging at the abbey until her death,[75] although she did not retire there until she was old.

In return for 30 acres in Kirk Hallam, at the excessively reasonable rent of 12 pence, payable annually on St Giles' day (1 September), the canons gave Richard 16 marks to pay his debt to David, a leading member of the Jewish community of Nottingham.

[110] It seems that William of Southwell, a cleric and possibly a kinsman of Abbot Grauncourt, actively sought out likely donors for the abbey along the Nottinghamshire border with Lincolnshire - small landowners beneath the attention of most money lenders.

[117] Meanwhile, Edward III had in 1363 granted a licence for the abbey to acquire land and rents up to an annual value of £20, on condition that the canons mention him every day in prayers, masses and chapter meetings.

"[136] The abbey held Ilkeston church for less than a decade before its rights were temporarily overridden by Pope Boniface IX, who in 1394 imposed on the parish John de Aston, formerly vicar of Colston Bassett, noting that the vicarage was worth 40 marks.

[175] The Borrowash mills also threatened the interests of the merchants of Derby, who complained in 1276 that the abbot of Dale and the Bishop of Chester had obstructed their river, contrary to the terms of charters granted by John and Henry III.

[192] Although widely regarded as a prudent man,[193] he proved an austere reformer: the chronicle of Dunstable Priory remarks in eodem capitulo ardua plurima sunt statuta — "in that chapter there were many rigorous statutes.

John wrote to the abbot of Easby or St Agatha's, near Richmond in Yorkshire, asking him to take on the case, as he had important business to transact for Dale in the presence of Walter Langton, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield.

[204] They persisted with the visitation and found the abbot of Halesowen incontinent, uncooperative, incompetent and unfit to rule; the prior, son of a cleric, incapable of his office and not trusted to hear confession by the canons; and several other brothers guilty of various offences.

[217] However, on 30 April 1263, around the commencement of the Second Barons' War, the most violent of the local rebel magnates, Robert de Ferrers, 6th Earl of Derby, had issued a charter taking Dale Abbey under his protection.

On 28 November 1381 Abbot William de Boney obtained for 20 shillings a commission of oyer and terminer on the complaint that Thomas Foljambe, accompanied by John Smyth of Stanley and other armed men, had assaulted him at Derby and driven him from the town.

[248] Many of these have toponymic surnames locating their origins firmly in the locality or a little further afield in the East Midlands, like Stanley, Stanton, Ilkeston, Trowell, Wolaton, Derby, Horsley, Nottingham (at least six of them), Monyash, Normanton, Cruch, Draykott; close to concentrations of Dale's further flung estates, like Thurgarton and Leke; in Lincolnshire, with its relatively large number of Premonstratensian house, like Sempringham, Hagnaby and Lincoln.

Although the vicars and chaplains also had pastoral responsibilities, the essential work of all priests was to celebrate the Eucharist, not only or even generally as part of congregational worship, but in chantries for the donors of land and grantors of charters, including the royal family.

After asking for Lawrence's help in reinstating a lay brother who had left the order but sincerely wanted to return, he reported on his further spiritual journey, which involved a stay at remote Cockersand Abbey.

The will of Johanna Holme, a widow of the parish of St Michael's Church, Derby, dated 1506, contains the clause: "I bequeth to S Jamys Agarde my son Canon Regular of the monastery of oure lady of tha Dale xx'& vi yerdes of white wullen cloth A feyther bed A payr of Shetes and iiii.

"[277] Feather beds, dinner parties and wine suggest expectations more in keeping with the prosperous burgesses and lower gentry with whom the canons socialised than the severe lifestyle envisaged by St Norbert, the order's founder.

Their report in the "Black Book" runs Hic in veneracione habent partem zonae et Lactis Sanctae Mariae et rotam Catherinae in argento Fundator, § Gervasius Kyngeston, Armiger.

As the commissioners had disbursed considerable payments to the abbot, canons and others, and had to buy fencing to secure the livestock during the sale, Francis Pole's failure to find the full price of his purchases on the day left them temporarily with no net profit: "And so remayneth in the seid Comissioners handes nil, for they have payd more then they have recevyd by the summe of vij l. xvij s. vj d. (£7 7s 6d.)".

[299] The commissioners were instructed:"ffirste ye shall enquire how many of the late Abbots Priours Abbesses prioresses Monkes Channons ffryers nonnys Incumbents and other mynyster of any Abbey Priory hospital howse of ffryers colleges chauntries ffree chapels guilds or ffratemityes and stipendiary priestes or eny other having rent chardge annuytie or pencion going oute or charged of any Abbey Priory hospital &c or out of any their possessions for term of life mentioned in a Sedule or book hereunto annexed be or shal be at the tyme of your session deade and what time and where every of them die.

"A letter attached to the commissioners' report, dated 30 October 1552,[300] prefaces a list of pensions and annuities due to be paid out in the year up to Michaelmas by Robert Goche, the receiver for the Court of Augmentations in Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire, 1547–53, and himself an enthusiastic dealer in former monastic properties.

While the great east window was much as today, the entire south wall of the nave still stood, large parts of the adjoining claustral buildings were recognisable and the gateway to a garden or close on the north side of the church was visible.

In 1789 John Byng discovered:"Of all that is described in the print [Buck's], as existing only 6o years ago, (belonging to noblemen, to whom we join an idea of taste) nothing now remains but the lofty arch, which P. did not walk down to, but I took post as near as I dared from a vicious bull, and executed a drawing with more success (I think) than usual.