Vale Royal Abbey was once one of the largest abbeys in England; it is now a golf course and private estate, in Whitegate, between Northwich and Winsford in the county of Cheshire.
When King Henry III's son Edward was old enough, he was made Earl of Chester and took great pride in the county. On becoming King Edward I he granted several town charters for markets and defended Chester in readiness for war in Wales. He also made a vow to found an abbey in Cheshire when he was in danger of shipwreck. As he had visited Darnhall and knew its quiet secluded setting, he chose this area as a site for Cistercian monks. This religious order chose to live in te wildest places possible, bringing their farming skills to clear forest and to bring unused land into use for farming. A group of monks arrived from Dore Abbey in Herefordshire to set up the new abbey, but they soon allowed to move to a better site that we now know as Vale Royal Abbey.
In 1277 the King and Queen arrived in the Parish of Over to lay the foundation stones of the new abbey, which was planned to be the biggest of its kind in the country. Although the Abbot became lord of the manor, the church and parish remained the property of the convent at Chester so Over paid tithed to both the Abbey and Convent.
The King's great ambition for the Abbey were short lived. He needed money and workmen to build the great castles he set up to control North Wales. He took not only the money had has set aside for the Abbey but eventually the masons and other workmen for the fortifications. The monks were left struggling to pay to complete the vast building and provide the running costs of it all by themselves. The Black Death put the seal on the great project by killing an estimated half of the supporting population.
In 1545, Vale Royal Abbey was dissolved and the estates were purchased by Thomas Holcroft who demolished most of the Abbey. He converted the Abbot's house and the monk's dining and sleeping quarters along with their kitchen into a new mansion.
The widow Lady Mary Cholmondeley purchased Vale Royal Abbey as a home for herself when her son inherited the land at Cholmondeley. She passed the house and estate on to her second son Thomas, and purchased Knight's Grange in Over and its estate for her youngest son, Thomas. It was she who entertained James I at Vale Royal and who he called "the Bolde Lady of Cheshire".
The "Palatine Prophet" Robert Nixon made many prophecies concerning the inhabitants at Vale Royal Abbey.