11. THE ABBEY OF HULTON
The Cistercian abbey of St. Mary at Hulton, a
daughter-house of Combermere Abbey in Cheshire,
was founded by Henry de Audley for the souls of
himself and his family. The site, in what was then a
remote part of the county, is just over 2 miles east
of Burslem in a valley beside the Trent not far from
its source. The first brethren were professed in
1219, (fn. 1) but Henry's foundation charter was not
issued until 1223. His endowment consisted of the
vill of Hulton, the vill of Rushton to the south of
Burslem with 'Manesmore', a wood at Sneyd 'with
the enclosed hay' at Carmount near Hulton, all his
land at Bucknall and Normacot, meadow called
'Bukkeley', and in the north-east of the county the
vill of Mixon and 'the vills and tenements' of
Bradnop, Middle Cliff, Apesford, 'Ruhegh', and
'Mulnesley' with a pasture at Morridge and a wood
at 'Witherward'; the grant also included a yearly
pension of 10 marks from Audley church. (fn. 2) Henry
made a new grant of the vills of Mixon and Bradnop
with the services of all the inhabitants within five
years of the death of Ranulph, Earl of Chester, in
1232; describing Ranulph as his lord, Henry made
the grant subject to the daily celebration of mass by
thirteen monks at Hulton 'all the days of the world'
for the souls of Ranulph, Henry, Henry's predecessors and successors, and all the faithful departed. (fn. 3)
Further land at Normacot was given by Simon de
Verney (fn. 4) and apparently at Bucknall also by Henry
de Verdon and his wife Hawise. (fn. 5) In 1256 the king
confirmed the gifts of Henry de Audley and Simon
de Verney, mentioning in addition a mill and a
fishery. (fn. 6)
Henry de Audley was described as patron and
advocate of the abbey in 1242, (fn. 7) and his grandson
William, who held the family estates from 1276 to
1282, is said to have given the monks land at
Swinfen (in Weeford). (fn. 8) By 1291 the abbey had
acquired tithes at Biddulph and had mills at
Normacot and Mixon; the total value of its temporalities was then given as £20 4s. 2d., much of it
from rents, while a further £6 13s. 4d. was received
from Audley church. (fn. 9) About 1300 Sir William de
Mere appears to have given the monks land at Meir
near Normacot. (fn. 10) Other grants are said to have
included land near Apesford from William son of
Thomas of Rudyard and Normacot Heath from
Robert de Caldwal, but no dates are given. (fn. 11)
The Audleys continued as benefactors. In 1348
royal licence was given for James, Lord Audley, to
grant the monks the advowson of Marwood (Devon)
and for the monks to appropriate the church. (fn. 12) In
1349 they acquired the advowson of Audley from
James with the right to appropriate. Royal licence
had not been secured, and in return for a 200-mark
fine the monks were allowed to retain the church. (fn. 13)
In 1354 the Pope gave permission for the appropriation, (fn. 14) but in fact appropriation took place only
after the death of the existing rector in 1369. A
vicarage was ordained in 1370 and the monks duly
presented. (fn. 15) In 1373, however, James claimed and
secured the right of presentation. (fn. 16) He exercised it
again in 1381, (fn. 17) but the next presentation, in 1385,
was made by the monks who secured royal confirmation of the 1349 licence a few days later. (fn. 18)
James, who died in 1386, left the monks £10 for
prayers for his soul and directed that he was to be
buried in the choir of the abbey in front of the high
altar. (fn. 19) His son and heir Nicholas, who was buried
in the abbey in 1391, (fn. 20) secured the appropriation of
Biddulph church to the monks earlier the same year;
a vicarage was not ordained until 1433. (fn. 21) Nicholas's
widow Elizabeth paid for the royal licence of 1395
allowing the monks to acquire from the abbey of
Blanchelande in Normandy the alien priory of
Cammeringham (Lincs.) and the advowson and
appropriation of the church. (fn. 22) Elizabeth, who died
in 1400, also left the monks of Hulton 400 marks for
the purchase of lands and £2 to each monk for
prayers for her soul and her husband's; she directed
that she was to be buried in the abbey 'with my very
honourable husband Lord D'Audeley'. (fn. 23)
The monks were engaged in sheep-farming by the
mid 13th century. (fn. 24) Granges were established at
Rushton and Hulton soon after the foundation of the
abbey, (fn. 25) and there is mention of the abbey's sheepfold at Normacot in 1242 and another at Mixon in
1251. (fn. 26) The monks had a tannery at Hulton by the
late 13th century and evidently a fulling-mill there
at some period. They seem to have produced
encaustic tiles, but there is no evidence that they
produced pottery, although Potter was a family
name at Hulton in the early 15th century. They
were running an iron smithy at Horton in 1528 and
owned coal mines at Hulton and Hanley by the 16th
century. (fn. 27) Although in 1535, as in 1291, much of the
abbey's income was derived from rents, there was
extensive demesne farming at Hulton, Normacot,
Bradnop, and Cammeringham in 1535. (fn. 28)
The abbey was poor and small. In 1351, 'out of
compassion for the poverty of the house', the king
remitted half of the 200-mark fine imposed in 1349
for the unlicensed acquisition of the advowson of
Audley. (fn. 29) The monks based their case for the appropriation of Audley church in 1354 on the fact
that their income had fallen to £14 as a result of the
Black Death; it had been £26 17s. 6d. in 1291. (fn. 30) By
1535 it had risen to £87 10s. 1½d., but this was the
smallest of any of the Staffordshire monasteries
except Brewood nunnery. (fn. 31) The community numbered only 5 (including the abbot) in 1377 and 1381; (fn. 32)
the abbot and eight monks signed the surrender
deed in 1538. (fn. 33) There is very little evidence about
the spiritual life of the house or its local influence.
In 1386 the king ordered the arrest of one of the
monks, William de Bynnynton, as a 'vagabond,
apostate monk' who had left the abbey without
permission and had been excommunicated more
than six months before. (fn. 34) In 1417 the abbot, Richard
Billington, was sued by Sampson Meverell for
abducting Joan Condale who was in Meverell's service at Hulton. (fn. 35) In the late 1520s the abbot was
accused of controlling the neighbourhood and
preventing justice from being done; he replied with
charges of assaults on his iron smithy at Horton. (fn. 36)
During the vacancy in 1534 the Earl of Shrewsbury wrote to Thomas Cromwell informing him
that William Chalner, a monk of Hulton, was the
candidate supported by most of the brethren 'for his
good living and wisdom.' (fn. 37) Sir Philip Draycott,
steward of the abbey's Staffordshire manors, wrote
to Cromwell stating that Chalner was supported by
Shrewsbury, the bishop, and his brother Thomas
Chalner, Abbot of Croxden. Draycott, however,
writing on behalf of 'the wisest priests in the house,
as Johnson and Cradok', stated that 'instead of being
a good man, as he will be reported, he is very vicious
and exceedingly drunken . . . There is none in the
house fit to hold that room but is too old or too
young. It is so poor and ruinous that, seeing the
variance amongst them, it would be better to put over
them some good monk of another house that will
bring them in good rule; and because I tender its
welfare more than its money or the favour of any I
am bold to write the truth.' (fn. 38) Chalner was evidently
not elected as an Abbot John occurs in 1535. (fn. 39)
Sir Philip's reference to the poverty of the abbey
is borne out by the returns of 1535. (fn. 40) The gross
income was given as £87 10s. 1½d. (£20 10s. from
spiritualities and £67 0s. 1½d., from temporalities)
and the net income as £76 14s. 10½d. Of the disbursements spiritual dues accounted for £3 11s. 9d.,
while the remaining £7 3s. 6d. went in various
annual charges including payments to Sir Philip
Draycott, chief steward of the Staffordshire manors
(£1 6s. 8d.), and his under-steward (13s. 4d.), Sir
Richard Sutton, chief steward of Cammeringham
(£1), and the bailiffs of Hulton (£1), Bradnop (10s.),
Normacot (10s.), and Cammeringham (£1). In
1538-9, the year following the dissolution, the abbey
estates, valued at £108 2s. 1½d. gross, consisted of
the manors of Bradnop, Normacot, Cammeringham,
and Fillingham (Lincs.) including 'Cotes'; Rushton
Grange; lands and rents in Hulton, Newcastleunder-Lyme, Stoke, Burslem, Sneyd, the Burslem
part of Milton, Ubberley (in Bucknall), and Meir;
the appropriated churches of Audley, Biddulph,
and Cammeringham and tithes in Fillingham; and a
coal mine in Hulton, rents from a 'wychehouse' in
Northwich (in Great Budworth, Ches.), and a rent
from St. Leonard's Chapel, Bridgnorth (Salop.), for
the maintenance of a light in the chapel of St. Mary
at Hulton. (fn. 41)
As an abbey worth less than £200 Hulton should
have been suppressed under the Act of 1536, but
the following year the Crown granted an exemption
for a fine of £66 13s. 4d. (fn. 42) In August 1538 Sir Brian
Tuke, Treasurer of the King's Chamber, wrote to
Cromwell asking him to grant the abbey to Tuke's
son-in-law 'young Mr. Audley' who at present had
only the manor of Audley' and no house but an old
ruinous castle' (Heighley Castle). Tuke claimed that
the abbot was willing to resign if Mr. Audley were
granted the abbey. (fn. 43) On 18 September the abbot
and eight other monks surrendered Hulton to the
Crown, (fn. 44) but none of the property went to the Audleys. In October the moveables, including three
bells, were bought by Stephen Bagot who in 1539
received a lease of the site and some other property. (fn. 45)
The site and the manor of Hulton were sold with
other neighbouring lands of the abbey to Sir Edward
Aston in 1543. (fn. 46) The monks were granted pensions,
the abbot one of £20; (fn. 47) two of the monks are recorded
as drawing pensions of £4 when they died in about
1556 and 1566. (fn. 48)
The abbey site is on the east side of the road from
Stoke to Leek by Carmountside Junior High
School. The conventual buildings lay on the south
side of the church which consisted of nave, aisles,
chancel, transepts (each with two east chapels), and
a tower over the crossing. Traces of the abbey fish
ponds are visible near the Trent on the west side of
the road. (fn. 49)
Abbots
Adam, occurs about 1230. (fn. 50)
Robert, occurs 1240 and 1241. (fn. 51)
William, occurs 1242 and 1244. (fn. 52)
Simon, occurs 1245-6 and 1254-5. (fn. 53)
William, occurs about 1265 and about 1286. (fn. 54)
Richard, occurs about 1286. (fn. 55)
Henry, occurs about 1288 and about 1302. (fn. 56)
Stephen, occurs 1306. (fn. 57)
Henry, occurs 1317. (fn. 58)
Nicholas of Kesteven or of Tugby, had become
Abbot of Combermere (Ches.) by 1324. (fn. 59)
William, occurs 1332. (fn. 60)
Henry, occurs 1349 and 1375. (fn. 61)
Denis, occurs 1389. (fn. 62)
Richard Billington, occurs 1395 and 1417. (fn. 63)
Nicholas, occurs 1432. (fn. 64)
Richard, occurs 1449 and 1450. (fn. 65)
John Shipton, occurs 1517, became Abbot of
Croxden in 1519. (fn. 66)
John Harwood, occurs 1527, became Abbot of
Vale Royal (Ches.) in 1534. (fn. 67)
John, occurs 1535. (fn. 68)
Edward Wilkyns, occurs 1536, surrendered the
abbey in 1539. (fn. 69)
The seal in use in 1538 is a pointed oval, 2½ by 1½
in. (fn. 70) It depicts the Virgin crowned and seated on a
panelled and canopied throne with the Child on her
right knee and a sceptre in her left hand. In the base
is a shield bearing the Audley arms. Legend, black
letter:
SIGILLUM COMMU[NE] . . . TE MARIE DE
HULTON