Possibly the earliest grange, and certainly one which enters the story through the families connected from the earliest date of priory and abbey, is Boyah Grange, just to the south over the shoulder of the hill from Hermit’s Wood, where there is currently a propsal for a windfarm. A normal farm seems to have existed there from between 1166 and 1180, and Serlo de Grendon occupied it at one time. It was possibly wooden, because all trace of this first building had disappeared by the middle of the 13th century; there is currently an 18th century house on the site, with modern farm buildings. There are traces of what may have been the original medieval moat, now partly a pond. The site was given to St Mary’s Abbey by Serlo II de Grendon, and the grange is mentioned in the suppression inventory – presumably it was acquired by Francis Pole. In 1994 the Derbyshire Archaeological Society investigated humps and hollows in the field to the north of Boyah Grange, close to where the windfarm would be sited, between the farm and the edge of the ridge containing the Hermitage: they found a deserted hamlet, hollow ways, banks and platforms.
Another major grange controlled by St Mary’s Abbey was at Stanley, on the site now occupied by the current farmhouse called Stanley Grange, whose buildings date from the late 17th or 18th century, depending on the source you read. The site is connected to the abbey by the ancient Portway track. The abbey’s Stanley Grange seems to have existed from the late 13th century, and certainly must have been built by 1291; the first mention of it in the records is in connection with Abbot William de Horsley (1332-54) who added a stone chamber to existing buildings. There may have been a chapel attached to the grange: certainly a Chapel of St Cross in Stanley is recorded in 1392, and it is not to be identified with the present Anglican church in Stanley village.
Stanley Grange’s later history is well documented. It was leased to a farmer, and at the dissolution, rented by a Robert Messe, who owed 20/-, due next Lady Day. He had been the convent’s bailiff at an annual fee of 20/- and received a reward of 12/-. His land was granted to Francis Pole in 1542, who sold it two years later to John Howe of London, a grocer, and Thomas Powtrell of West Hallam for £102. Its value in 1545 was £5 13s. 4d..
The former abbot John Bebe found asylum at Stanley Grange and died there on 12th March 1540 or 1541; he was followed two years later by William Smith, a former canon. After 1544 the grange stayed in the Powtrell family, who were staunch Roman Catholics and consequently constantly persecuted; they sheltered Jesuits Campion and Parsons. In 1611 the grange was occupied by George Peckham, who had married Dorothy, second daughter of Walter Powtrell; the splendid alabaster tomb in St Wilfrid’s church, West Hallam, shows Dorothy bearing a shield.