In 1616 a small seminary for the education of Roman Catholic boys was established at the grange by Lady Anne Vaux; the details of these boys’ names are still extant. In 1635 the school was dispersed due to treachery by a young man called Lumley who, on his marriage, conformed to the Church of England and betrayed the school to Archbishop Laud of the Privy Council on 8th October 1635; his statement is also extant. In 16th March 1680 or 81 Father George Busby who had been the Powtrells’ chaplain for six or seven years was captured in West Hallam: he was tried in July 1681 and exiled.
In 1903 bones, thought to be pagan, were found on the site and re-interred in the churchyard in Stanley village.
A medieval iron-working centre in Stanley was excavated by Trent and Peak Archaeological Trust in 1997. They found eight hearths dating from the mid 13th century, with early 14th century pottery; ore crushing, smelting and bloom refining were carried on at the site. The site itself was subsequently destroyed by opencast mining.
Other granges owned by St Mary’s Abbey and known to date back to the 13th century include Alvaston Grange, Gosewonge Grange and Griffe Grange. Alvaston Grange may be the same building as Ambaston Grange: the former appears in the records in 1291, the latter in 1432. Half of Abbot John Stanley’s pension in 1491 was ten marks from the proceeds of Alvaston Grange. In 1547 the building was in the possession of Henry Needham and William Sacheverell, one of the stewards of the Abbey site, who died in 1557; ownership of the grange then passed to the Allestrees and Borrows. None of the present buildings on the site is earlier than 19th century.
Gosewonge is at Bathley near Newark: it was granted in 1553 to Thomas Farneham and Thomas Morrison and had a tenant called William Bassett; in 1581 it was owned by John Smythe; the present grange is a modern building incorporating bits of the old. Griffe is at the northern end of the Via Gellia near Cromford, and quite close to much land in Brassington, Hopton and other surrounding villages, most of which were the gift of the Ferrars family. Before the dissolution it was leased to Ralph Gell for 61 years at a rent of £4 12s.; he retained possession by paying £300 and an annual rate of £4; it was still in the Gell family when Philip Gell died in 1842, but the present buildings do not betray its history. In 1939 it was owned by one Henry Key.
Littlehay Grange, sometimes known as Ockbrook Grange, is about a mile away from the abbey site, to the south between Dale and Ockbrook. There are traces of an old moat behind the current house. The site was the gift of the de Grendon family but it is not mentioned in the records until 1535. At the dissolution the grange was held by Francis Pole, as recorded in 1540 and 1544. In 1562 it passed to Thomas Stanhope. The present buildings are 19th