Brook which currently trickles its way along from Dunns Hill in the direction of Kirk Hallam. Land ownership was clearly as important an issue in those times as it is now, and accuracy over names and siting would be vital. It seems highly likely, therefore, that Depedale Priory, with its church and other buildings, was built in the area to the south of the Sow Brook, in the lea of the sandstone escarpment housing the Hermitage. There is at present a field in the bottom of the valley with many unexplained humps and hollows, and blocks of stone which become visible on occasions. This field also holds the remains of abbey fishponds, presumably of later date.


Wherever it was, Depedale Priory in the hands of the Augustinian Canons made a good start. It became the burial place of choice of local noblemen and other people of note, including the anchorite Peter Cook of Bathley; it is on record that more than 40 knights were buried there. The many endowments included the Gomme's Depedale estate, Boyah estate (given by Serlo II de Grendon after his father had retained the area), a small area called Thacthemor (given by Serlo I), and 4 acres probably in Sandiacre. Albinus, the first abbot of Darley Abbey, who reigned from 1151 to 1175, was a benefactor.  Serlo II’s intention was that the canons should have a grange on the site of the de Grendons’ house.

In spite of all this, the Augustinians’ rule at Depedale Priory was not to last more than about 25 years. The priory was not well endowed by anyone other than the de Grendons, so it quickly became desolate and poverty stricken. At a date variously calculated as around 1175, 1180 or 1185, the canons were dismissed by the king, because they had been hunting in his forest, and Prior Humphrey returned to La Magdalen Abbey in northern Spain, to a hermit’s life.  

The area was desolate for an unknown period.