The Chronicle of Dale Abbey, aka St Mary’s Abbey, Stanley Park, is a document ‘of great value’, unique amongst English Premonstratensian literature and the chief source of history for this area of South East Derbyshire in the Middle Ages. A small quarto volume containing it may be found in the British Museum, reference MS Cott. Vesp. E.26, 186 pages on vellum, measuring eleven by eight inches. This document has been described as a carelessly written 15th century transcript of the original Chronicle, plus fragments of the 13th century original, it is full of erasures and corrections, and was written between 1253 and 1286. The Chronicle is followed in the MS by a list of abbots and a transcript of their deeds: the first 16 abbots are recorded in the same hand, dating from the rule of Abbot John Stanley; later abbots are in a later hand. After the list of abbots comes the Cartulary, starting at folio 170, the Stanley section of which is imperfect. The existing volume passed into the hands of Sir Anchitell Gray of Risley, who passed it to the Cottonian Library in about 1700. It was transcribed twice in the following century.

Two 17th century transcripts of the poor late 15th century manuscript are also in the British Museum: one was made in 1611 by the Lancaster Herald Nicholas Charles; the other is a later copy in the Harleian collection. There are also two further copies in the Bodleian Library, as well as three fragments covering about one third of the text and to be found in the same manuscript, which was transcribed in the 20th century by Avram Saltman. The first of these fragments is apparently late 13th century, and is possibly the original, by Thomas de Musca, and dating to about 1260; the second is a little later and has a few lines of chapter 12; the third is on the other side of fragment two and in a 14th century hand. It has chapter 13 plus the last two or three lines of the chronicle version used by Saltman and lost when the book was bound.

Peck published a version of the text in 1732-5, Desiderata Curiosa, book 15, pages one to ten; this was reprinted in 1779.  He said Dale was in Lancashire. Peck’s text was translated in Glover’s History and Gazeteer of the County of Derby, part one, volume two, 1833. Dugdale also published a version, in 1661.  

The Peck and Dugdale versions are markedly different. Peck said he used ‘a fair old manuscript’, superior to Dugdale’s, but he was cagey about identifying it precisely: Colvin traced this manuscript back to the Registrum Premonstratense, published by Gasquet (Belvoir Castle Additional Manuscript 2), which has an early 16th century transcript of the Chronicle on folios 51-4. Saltman called this manuscript ‘P’ and the one he transcribed ‘D’.