Matilda became an executor of St Mary’s Abbey; she was the source of the Dale Chronicle, telling her story to the entire brotherhood when she was very old. At that point, the abbey had been in her family for at least 100 years. It appears that her husband Geoffrey died before 1229, which is the date when Matilda came to live at St Mary’s Abbey; one source says he died shortly before 1228. Matilda last appears in public records in 1243.

Most of Matilda’s story has already been related in previous chapters. However, she did tell of an outlaw and his vision: the section of the Chronicle recording this part of her story is not clear, and there is no time scale giving a clue to when this outlaw had his vision. It was presumably before any religious house was built in the valley, but one dare not be more precise in his dating.  

The story goes that the outlaw frequented Depedale because of the Portway. He was sitting on Lyndrike (the hill beyond the gate of the monastery towards the west) when he had a dream of a golden cross standing on the Abbey church site, reaching to heaven, and people coming from many nations to worship, until the end of time. He told his friends and then gave up his life of crime: there was a theory that he spent his declining years here. Lyndrike has been identified as Ockbrook Wood, but this is a tad conjectural: Ockbrook Wood is to the south-west of the gateway, and Arbour Hill to the north-west; both might be considered contenders, and both had connections with the Portway.