W. Midlands

Founded as abbey of Blessed Virgin Mary and St John the Evangelist by Peter des Roches, bishop of Winchester;  charter dated 1215, the manor etc having been granted to him for this purpose by King John in 1214.  Canons arrived from Welbeck in 1218.

For the usual 13 canons, but number must have soon increased as they sent out a colony in 1232-3 to Titchfield.

Church built 13th century.  Refectory built over an undercroft (CLAPHAM)

Income in 1291:  over £26.  Abbey greatly enriched after then, so there may have been 26 or more canons before the Black Death.

Abbots of Dale and Welbeck involved in excommunicating abbot and a canon in early 1300s (THOMPSON)

1381:  11 canons;  1489:  17 including 4 serving churches;  in the itme of Henry VII:  35 but this must have included people other than canons.

Mother abbey of Dodford (KNOWLES), an attached cell near Bromsgrove (THOMPSON).

Net income c. 1535:  £280.

Surrendered 9 June 1538.  (KNOWLES)

Fragments of 13th century church and refectory and a long 2-storeyed building to SE remain.  See Birm. And Mid. Inst., ii, p.49 and VCH Worcestershire, iii, p. 137