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Monastic Granges

There were no medieval abbeys or priories in the Peak, however they held much land here, farmed from granges.

These were run by lay-brethren, or particularly later, tenanted by local farmers.  Many of these monastic granges, owned by a variety of orders, occupied land acquired in the 12th and 13th centuries, at the time when many monasteries were being founded throughout England.  About 50 granges are known in the Peak, but most are poorly documented and others may well await discovery.

Many of the abbeys and priories in the lowlands surrounding the Peak were granted land here, or purchased it.  The income from farming the granges was used to help support the monastic community.  While most monasteries had their cloistral buildings within the lowlands of the Midlands within 100km of the Peak, monastic houses as far away as Dunstable in Bedfordshire held land in the region.  In many cases these granges lay on the higher limestone land and were used for sheep farming, although in some instances arable farming was also practiced.  Other granges were located in lower parts of the limestone plateau and on the fringes of the gritstone uplands.   Welbeck Abbey for example held extensive lands in the Upper Derwent.

Crookhill was a grange at Welbeck Abbey.

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Examples Of Peak District Granges

Well over half of the known granges in the Peak belonged to Cistercian monasteries, an order well known for their development of marginal areas, primarily for sheep farming to provide fleeces for the lucrative wool trade.

A map showing the distribution of medieval monastic granges in the Peak District and the location of the abbeys and priories that owned them.

In some cases the granges were built alongside or supplanted earlier settlements. The post-medieval farm buildings at One Ash Grange probably occupy the same site as the medieval monastic grange owned by Roche Abbey near Sheffield. One Ash use to lie in its own township, until subsumed by Monyash. The settlement already existed before the Norman Conquest and is listed in the Domesday book (1086 AD).

With the climatic decline from the mid-14th century onwards, many granges may well have become less profitable and most were rented to local farmers.  With the dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century the granges became the property of these farmers or other secular landlords.

Granges such as this at Abney gained new owners after the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

In a few instances, wall foundations of medieval buildings survive, as at Roystone Grange.  Elsewhere there are earthworks of surrounding boundaries, the best-known examples of which are at Cronkston and Mouldridge Granges.

This map shows the locations of medieval granges north of Hartington, at Needham, Cronkston, Cotesfield and Pilsbury, based on an early 17th century plan, showing the relationship to other settlement present at that time and where boundary earthworks survive today.

This large post-medieval farmstead at Meadow Place Grange, long the property of Chatsworth Estate, with Over Haddon in the background, is on the site of a medieval grange. The fertile land here was owned and farmed by Leicester Abbey and helped to provide an income for this monastic community.

Walls preserve the medieval layout of Cronkston Grange.

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