Sir William Brereton, 1st Baronet From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Major General Sir William Brereton Sir William Brereton, 1st Baronet (13 September 1604 – 7 April 1661) was an English writer an...
Raymond Erith= From Wikipedia: Raymond Charles Erith RA FRIBA (7 August 1904 – 30 November 1973) was a leading classical architect in England during the period dominated by the modern movement after th...
Anthony Crommelin Crossley= From Mobberley Anthony Crommelin Crossley (13 August 1903–15 August 1939) was a British a writer, publisher and Conservativepolitician. He was born on 13 August 1903 and in ...
Kenneth Irwin Crossley= From Mobberley Kenneth Crossley is one of Mobberley’s more interestingresidents. He was born at Dunham Massey in 1877 andmoved to Mobberley New Hall (Now Barclay Hall/Sunrise Li...
1220 Abbot Thomas de Gillyng of Combermere Abbey reprimanded for undertaking new monastic building at the Abbey without papal permission
1231 Abbot Stephen of Lexington visited Combermere during his survey of monasteries,and had only minor criticism of the establishment
1253 First concerns were raised about the Abbey’s finances – a problem which was to re-occur many very times right up to the Dissolution
1275 Sheriff of Shropshire ordered the Abbey’s creditors to ‘offer respite’ on the Abbey’s very considerable debts, which proved only temporary
1276 Richard, Abbot of Combermere, and six monks, fortified the church of Saint Mary in Drayton and attacked the Archbishop of Canterbury
1281 The Abbot of Combermere, Richard, and six monks, fortified the church of Saint Mary in Drayton (now Market Drayton) and attacked the Archbishop of Canterbury. He in turn excommunicated the Abbot and his monks
1282 The Abbey petitioned the King –Edward I - asking to be excused the levy to pay for the suppression of the Welsh on account of their poverty.
1309 Nantwich residents attack the Abbot and the Prior in the town, killing the Prior. First known act of violence between the town and the Abbey
1310 King Edward II almost certainly visited Combermere Abbey on his tour of the monastic houses of Cheshire and Lancashire
1318 The Abbot of Whalley Abbey, a sister house to Combermere, complained to the authorities of ‘hard financial dealings’ by the Abbot of Combermere
1319 The Abbey was yet again taken into the royal protection of King Edward II “on account of its poverty and miserable state”
1321 Combermere Abbey placed in royal financial custody once more; income still failing to pay off the Abbey’s considerable debts
1344 The Abbots of Combermere and Whalley attacked at Hulton in Staffordshire. Abbot Roger complains of ambushes being laid across the countryside
1360 Abbot John of Combermere led a violent attack on the property of Sir Richard Fullshurst, one of the Abbey’s fiercest local critics
1365 The Abbot and monks of Combermere attack and take the Abbey at Whalley and are removed by the Sheriff of Lancaster leading a posse comitatus
1410 The monks of Combermere were said to be facing starvation and they were guaranteed relief from taxation to mitigate their poverty
1414 William of Plymouth, Abbot of Combermere, accused of the treasonable crime of counterfeiting, and then recorded as having ‘gone away’
1415 Roger Hoggeson of Holyhurst and Richard Tenche of Lodmore led an armed mob, which invaded the Abbey, stealing books and killing horses
1446 Abbot Richard Alderwas murdered by John Bagh of Dodcott on the lane to Audlem in what was perhaps the Abbey’s worst crime
1496 Combermere Abbey exempted from clerical taxation on the grounds of the Abbey’s continuing poverty
1520 The Abbey’s tanner, John Jenyns, murdered Daniel Ottewell at the Abbey. Abbot successfully concealed the murderer and swore his monks to silence
1528 Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, warned of the Abbot of Combermere’s “lack of abilities and his poor behaviour”
1535 Cromwell’s auditors arrived at Combermere and their report showed an income of £258 6 shillings and 6 pence from an estate of 22,000 acres.
1539 The last Abbot, John Massey, failed in his protestations against Dissolution, surrendered Combermere to the Crown, and accepted a generous pension
1539 The Combermere estate granted to Sir George Cotton, courtier and comptroller of the household of Henry Fitzroy, Henry VIII’s illegitimate son
1545 Death of Sir George Cotton. Combermere inherited by his six year-old son, Richard, who was eventually to build a great mansion on the site
1560 - 1900 The life expectancy of women, babies and infants at the Abbey was shown to be at least twice as good as the historical perception
1560 Richard Cotton commissioned one of the Tudor mansion’s greatest treasures, the huge oak fire surround in The Abbot’s Lodgings, with its royal portraits
1563 New timber-framed house built at Combermere by Richard Cotton, son of Sir George Cotton, the ecclesiastical buildings having been demolished
1643 Part of Lord Capell’s Royalist army was billeted at Combermere ahead of the Battle of Nantwich, which lead to a substantial Royalist defeat
1644 The death of the elderley George Cotton saved Combermere from paying a huge fine imposed by Parliament
1659 Robert Cotton saved from a charge of high treason, and fortfeiture of his estates, by the resignation of Cromwell as Lord Protector
1677 Sir Robert Cotton, now a very wealthy man - who had been knighted at the Restoration in 1660 - created a baronet at the age of forty two
1707 Oldest known map of Combermere created by Sir Thomas Taylor, who had married into the Cotton family – included ‘Ralph The Fisherman’
1730 Dutch artist Peter Tillemanns painted a panoramic, bird’s-eye view of the Abbey showing the variety of life and work on the estate
1773 Birth of Stapleton Cotton, who was to become a great war hero and the first Viscount Combermere, at the Cotton family’s house at Llwenney
1774 Dr Samuel Johnson visited and described the Abbey; “Combermere is the best house I ever saw of its kind. It is spacious but not [too] magnificent”.
1809 Stapleton Cotton inherited the family estates on the death of his father, Sir Robert Salusbury Cotton, and made Combermere his principal seat
1814 Sir Stapleton Cotton Bt. created Baron Combermere following military success in South Africa, India and the Iberian Peninsula
1814 - 1821 Abbey extensively re-modelled in the Gothick style by Baron Combermere, who was Governor of Barbados between 1817 and 1820
1815 Battle of Waterloo, where the Marquess of Anglesey rather than Baron Combermere was in command of the cavalry, to Combermere’s fury
1820 Duke of Wellington visited the Abbey, stood as godfather to Baron Combermere’s son, and planted a commemorative oak tree
1827 Baron Combermere created Viscount Combermere of Bhurtpore after his victory there. Changed his name to Stapleton Stapleton-Cotton
1829 Stone Lodge built at the Nantwich road entrance, designed by Morrison. Two re-modelling schemes commissioned – from Edward Blore and Morrisons
1837 The new stable block built at the Abbey to the design of the famous architect of the British Empire, Edward Blore, who re-modelled Buckingham Palace
1865 Death of the first Viscount Combermere; instead of being buried in Westminster Cathedral, as befitted his status, he was interred in Wrenbury
1881 - 1882 Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and one of the most famous and glamourous women in Europe, rented the Abbey over the hunting seasons
1891 Combermere rented by Sir Richard and Lady Constance Sutton. Sir Richard died shortly after and Constance lived at the Abbey as a widow and mother
1893 The Combermere Abbey estate offered for sale by the now impecunious third Viscount Combermere, but did not find a buyer
1919 Fourth Viscount Combermere sold the Abbey and the contents were auctioned at a three-day sale. The estate bought by Sir Kenneth Crossley
1930 - 1939 Sir Kenneth’s eldest daughter, Fidelia Crossley, gained her flying license at the age of 25 and was a pioneering competition aviatrix
1930 - 1939 Crossley cars sold well in the higher strata of the mushrooming car market, and were especially popular with the young princes of the British royal family
1939 Tragic death of Sir Kenneth’s son and heir, Anthony Crossley MP, in a flying accident off Denmark just before the start of the war
1939 - 1945 Combermere Abbey was used firstly as a convalescent home and then as a temporary base for a school moved to safety from the south coast
1939 - 1945 Once again Crossley manufactured vehicles for war, but to Sir Kenneth’s disappointment the firm was not asked to build aircraft
1952 Abbey added to the statutory list of buildings of special architectural and historical merit as Grade I. The unsound North Wing was abandoned
1953 Death of Francis Crossley of the Grenadier Guards, son of Anthony Crossley and heir to Sir Kenneth Crossley, of polio
1957 Death of Sir Kenneth Crossley aged 80.
1959 Combermere Abbey was inherited by his grand-daughter Penelope Callander (later Lady Lindsay)
1971 A scheme for the re-modelling of Combermere Abbey was commissioned from Raymond Erith and Quinlan Terry but never built
1975 Suffering badly from rot, the Wellington dining room at the north east of the Abbey was demolished, and the south wing lowered from three storeys to two
1992 The Combermere Estate was passed from Lady Lindsay to her daughter, Sarah Callander Beckett, who had been working in the USA for many years
1992 A much-needed programme of restoration was initiated with seven derelict listed buldings being restored, including the stables, the Edwardian Glasshouse, the Game Larder and the Abbey itself
1993 -94 The gothick Victorian stable block, designed for the first Viscount Combermere by Edward Blore, was converted into luxury holiday cottages
1994 Restoration of the five and a half acre walled garden commences, complete with the world's only fruit tree maze
1995 Following legislation which allowed private premises to become wedding venues, the Abbey was the second historic building in England, and the first in Cheshire, to secure a wedding license
2011 - 2014 The restoration of The Library, the most impressive and historic room at the Abbey, was undertaken, using some of the country’s finest conservators
2014 After many years spent trying to arrange the funding, the restoration of the ruinous North Wing was begun at last
2015 A man’s shoe and a large horseshoe, concealed at the Abbey for good luck and fecundity during building work in the late Eighteenth century, were found during the restoration process
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