A further grant affirms that it is made in response to the requests of domini Rogeri et Gaufridi et Roberti, heremitarum et fratrum de Faurwelle: Masters Roger, Walter and Robert, hermits and brothers of Farewell.

"[5] Moreover, Radmore Abbey, a Cistercian house, was established a short distance away during the same period as Farewell, incorporating hermits who already lived nearby and also with the involvement of Roger de Clinton.

[7] The commission for its dissolution names it explicitly as prioratum beatae Mariae de Farewell ordinis sancti Benedicti.

Pope Alexander III commissioned an investigation by the Cistercian abbot of Garendon Abbey and the Augustinian prior of Kenilworth Priory,[9] which adjudicated in favour of the nuns.

[10] However, the nuns could not maintain their position for long and, in order to obtain exemption they were compelled in or about 1229 to hand over a toft, an acre of land and a payment of seven marks.

Langley Priory was established with nuns drawn from Farewell, as was acknowledged in its charter of about 1180 from William de Ferrers, 3rd Earl of Derby.

[15] It was also agreed that Alice de Hely, a Farewell nun at that time residing at Langley, would remain in place for five years and then return to the mother house.

The dispute flared up again in subsequent decades and under a composition, embodied in a charter issued by Prioress Serena of Farewell in 1248, Langley was to pay 4 marks annually, with a penalty for non-payment of 40 shillings.

[16] As well as conferring the church of St Mary at Farewell, with a mill and wood, Roger de Clinton's charter to the nuns gave them the land between the banks of two streams, called Chistalea and Blachesiche.

Henry II granted a charter to the nuns of Farewell when at Radmore, now Red Moor,[17] south of Cannock Wood.

Around 1170 Geoffrey Peche granted land and a man to cultivate it at "Morhale" as the dowry of Sara, his daughter, when she entered Farewell[21] – commonly a source of small endowments for nunneries.

In 1251 Henry III recognised an important exemption of Farewell by mandating the seneschal of Cannock Forest to refrain from collecting pannage dues, as these were contrary to the liberties the nuns had from his royal predecessors.

[28] In 1279 the prior of the Augustinian Llanthony Priory, then in Gloucestershire, sued the prioress of Farewell for rents and services he claimed were due for a holding of two carucates and a messuage in Longdon.

These included two marks and the provision of a priest to celebrate Mass in the chapel at Radmore, which the prior claimed Prioress Julia had accepted in the reign of Henry III.

[31] On 28 February 1321 Philip de Somerville, king's clerk to Edward II, was licensed to alienate in mortmain to Farewell 20 acres of waste that he held as a tenant-in-chief at the royal manor of Alrewas.

She sued Ralph de Wal and Adam Lewis, alleging that they had violently ejected her from custody of both the land and the heir of John West of Elmhurst.

[34] In 1367 Prioress Agnes sued Humphrey, son of Simon de Rugeley, by writ of quare cessavit per biennium for ten acres of cultivated land and two of moor at Longdon.

[37] On 30 January 1398 the priory obtained a licence to acquire in mortmain properties to the yearly value of 10 marks, although the lands in question were not specified.

In the early 14th century, before the onset of the agrarian crisis of 1315–22 and the still more devastating Black Death, there was demesne farming at Farewell, Curborough, and Hammerwich.

The social status of tenants varied greatly, and could be high, as on the Abnalls estate, now in Burntwood, which seems to have evolved from the holdings at Pipe.

[42] Knowledge of the religious life in Farewell is largely based on two canonical visitations of the 14th century, which necessarily emphasise issues for improvement.

Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was not favourable to monasticism, at least as practised in the early 16th century, and at the outset of his Chancellorship in 1515 requested papal sanction to make visitations of all the monasteries in England.

In order to raise sufficient finance for the scheme, he proposed to suppress a number of other monasteries around the country and redirect their incomes to the college.

[54] Wolsey's commission for the suppression of Farewell was issued on 20 March 1527, having been approved by Henry VIII two days earlier,[55] although an undated report of an inquisition into the priory has been placed in May 1526, possibly adding to the confusion about dates.

[56] The commission was addressed to Richard Street, Archdeacon of Salop, and William Clayborough, a canon of York Minster and a prominent lawyer.

It specified that the nuns were to be transferred to other Benedictine houses and that the assets were to go to the dean and chapter of Lichfield Cathedral, in order to enrich the choristers.

[57] She was to continue at Black Ladies until it too was dissolved on 16 October 1538, receiving a lump sum of 20 shillings[58] and subsequently allotted an annual pension of 33s.

The parish church was altered greatly in the 1740s and restored again in the mid-19th century, leaving only the eastern end of the original structure,[66] although there are also two ranges of misericords, dated about 1300, in the chancel and some 15th-century panel tracery.