Croxton Abbey

Croxton Abbey stands in the quiet countryside near Croxton Kerrial in Leicestershire. Founded in the 12th century by William, Count of Boulogne, it belonged to the Premonstratensian order. The abbey controlled several smaller houses across England, including Blanchland Priory and Cockersand Priory. Its church measured over sixty metres long and had a simple cruciform shape without aisles. A presbytery was added in the 13th century, extending the building slightly. The abbey played a notable part in royal history when its abbot embalmed King John after his death in 1216. The king’s heart was buried in the abbey church, and his son Henry III later made gifts to the monastery. Despite financial troubles in the 14th century, including damage from Scottish raids and the Black Death, the abbey acquired new lands and manors. By the time of the Dissolution in 1538, the abbot and eighteen canons still lived there. Today only a private house called New Park House shows traces of the old guest house. The rest of the site has no visible remains above ground. The abbey church, cloister, chapterhouse, kitchen, refectory and dormitory once stood here, arranged around a small cloister. Visitors can still sense the scale of the church from its foundations and imagine the daily life of the canons who once walked these paths.