The abbey was devastated at least twice: in the early 1300s a fire destroyed the entire monastic grange, and in 1359—soon after building work had recommenced under the patronage of Edward the Black Prince—a great storm caused the collapse of the massive nave.

He was supposedly caught in rough weather crossing the English Channel in the early 1260s, during which, the abbey's own chronicler[note 1] later wrote, the King's son and his entourage feared for their lives.

On 13 August 1277, the king and Queen Eleanor, their son Alphonso and a number of nobles arrived at Over to lay the foundation stones of the new abbey[6] for the high altar.

[12] During an excavation in 1958, the site of the abbey—at the time, heavily wooded and similar to its medieval appearance—was described as: On the left bank of the river Weaver, 2½ miles southwest of Northwich.

It stands on level ground from which there is a fairly rapid slope northwards down to the river, a factor which must have assisted considerably in the natural drainage of the heavy clay subsoil.

[21] The chief architect, Walter of Hereford (one of the foremost of his day),[9][note 5] began work on a huge, elaborate High Gothic church the size of a cathedral.

[44] Two years later, sufficient progress had been made to allow the new church to be consecrated by the Bishop of Durham, Anthony Bek; Edward and his court attended the service.

War with Wales[48][note 13] had broken out in 1282,[8] and Edward needed money for troops and workmen to build castles, such as Harlech, which cemented the eventual conquest.

[58] Despite possessing a substantial income from its own lands and feudal dues, the abbey amassed large debts to other church institutions, royal officials, building contractors and even the merchants of Lucca.

[15] Work stopped for at least a decade after 1290, at least in part due to the transference of the county revenues from the abbey to the newborn Prince of Wales, who was also made Earl of Chester.

[53] The authors note that from then on, construction Dragged on through the 14th and 15th centuries, an object lesson in the unreliability of princes and the folly of monks who had allowed themselves to be drawn into grandiose schemes inconsistent with the architectural simplicity which had once been one of the most cherished principles of the order.

As the medievalists Gwilym Dodd and Alison McHardy have emphasised, "a religious house, like any other landlord, depended on the income from its estates as the main source of its economic wellbeing",[60] and from the late 12th century, monastic institutions were "particularly assiduous in...seeking to tighten the legal definition of servile status and tenure" for its tenantry.

Keeping it common land would have prevented the monks from utilising it, so the abbey effectively received immunity from the foresting laws, and, say Bostock and Hogg, "almost certainly" over-reached itself regularly.

[15] In spite of the abbey's financial difficulties, building continued, albeit at a slow pace, and by 1330 the monks were able to move from their "temporary"[56] dwellings into their main quarters.

[89] The abbey choir was completed during the first year;[85] scholars are now uncertain as to what degree Helpeston was still building in accordance with de Hereford's 13th-century plans or was introducing elements of his own design.

[91] Repairs were slowly made over the next thirteen years, and Abbot Thomas may have been responsible for the "unique chevet of seven radiating chapels",[94] which were built by de Hepleston and cost £860.

Abbot Henry Arrowsmith, who had a particular reputation for lawlessness, was hacked to death in 1437 by a group of men (one of whom was the vicar of Over) in revenge for a suspected rape by one of the abbey's monks.

[103] The situation grew legally murky as Holcroft, probably with a forged signature on the deed of exchange,[104][note 31] claimed that the abbey had surrendered to him on 7 September.

[6] The monks continued to petition the government, particularly Thomas Cromwell, who was responsible for church affairs in his role as vicar general during the Royal Supremacy.

[106] Abbot John was not executed: rather, he was given a substantial pension of £60 per year and the abbey's silver plate, indicating that the trial was a means of pressuring him to acquiesce to Cromwell.

[103] Holcroft built a grand external staircase to his new first-floor entrance, which, suggests the archaeologist J. Patrick Greene, "reinforced the visual reminder to all visitors that a new regime now prevailed" at Vale Royal.

[106] During their residency canted bay windows were introduced to the front of the wings which, along with their accompanying mullions and transoms, have been described by Pevsner as "a remarkably early instance of Elizabethan revivalism".

[106] The king enjoyed himself so much that he knighted two members of the family and, in a letter written shortly after his visit, offered to advance the political careers of Lady Mary's sons if they would come to court.

[116] Their allegiance had serious consequences; fighting took place at Vale Royal, the house was looted, and the building's south wing was burned down by Parliamentarian forces commanded by General John Lambert.

Frank died at the end of 1934; Edith hired archaeologist Basil Brown to excavate some of the mounds on the Sutton Hoo estate in 1939, discovering northern Europe's richest Anglo-Saxon burial ground.

[123] Another Cholmondeley, Thomas, 4th Baron Delamere, moved into the abbey in 1934; he was forced out in 1939, when the government took over Vale Royal to use as a sanatorium for convalescing soldiers during World War II.

Apart from the church (which took up the east side of the square), the buildings consisted of a chapter house,[note 34] the abbot's dwelling, guest accommodations, and the outbuildings necessary for the upkeep of the community and its agricultural work.

It consisted, writes Emery, "of a timber-framed three-bay hall, open to the roof, flanked by a pair of single bay rooms, the whole set above a masonry ground floor".

The material in its construction is from three sources: the head from a medieval cross whose four panels depict the crucifixion, the virgin and child Jesus, St. Catherine and St. Nicholas; the shaft, made of sandstone in the 17th century; and a plinth from a reclaimed[133] pillar base.

[58] At least some of the original abbey still survives to the first floor; in 1992 a British Archaeological Association study discovered late-medieval graffiti scratched into plasterwork on an internal wall.