Stanlow Abbey
The Abbey of St. Mary at Stanlaw, was a Cistercian foundation situated on Stanlaw - now Stanlow Point, on the banks of the River Mersey in the Wirral Peninsula, Cheshire, England, near Ellesmere Port, 11 km north of Chester Castle and 12 km south-west of Halton Castle.
History
The abbey was founded in 1178 by John fitz Richard, Baron of Halton and Hereditary Constable of Chester, as a daughter abbey of Combermere Abbey. In August 1277, King Edward I of England stayed there for three nights.Stanlaw Abbey was in an exposed situation near the Mersey estuary and it suffered from a series of disasters. In 1279 it was flooded by water from the Mersey and in 1287 during a fierce storm, its tower collapsed and part of the abbey was destroyed by fire. The monks appealed to the pope for the monastery to be moved to a better site and thus, with both papal consent and the agreement of Edward I and Henry de Lacy, 10th Baron Halton, they moved to Whalley near Clitheroe, Lancashire. This move took place in 1296. However, a small cell of monks remained on the site until the Reformation, the site becoming a grange of Whalley Abbey.
The remains of the abbey lie on Stanlow Island marooned between the Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal. The standing remains include two sandstone walls and a re-used doorway, and the buried features include part of a drain leading to the River Gowy. These remains are recognised as a scheduled monument.
The abbey was purchased by Mr John Wright who turned the building into three dwellings for some of his children. The family resided on Stanlow until a compulsory purchase order was placed on the island to make way for the oil refinery.