CALDER, Cumbria was established in 1135 by Ranulf de Gernon, earl of Chester, and is the third house in the county which owes its origin to this famous family. The house was colonised by monks from the Savigniac house of Furness but was the victim of the Scottish military campaigns in the north of England, following the death of Henry I in 1135. The desolate monks sought refuge at Furness but were refused entry. Eventually the monks of Calder, under the protection of Thurstan, archbishop of York, were settled at Byland.

A second colony of monks was sent to Calder from Furness in or about 1143, under the leadership of Abbot Hardred. This time the settlement was successful, although the community remained poor. Calder, along with all the other Savigniac houses, was transferred to the Cistercian Order in 1147. The number of monks probably never increased above the original thirteen, and by 1381 there were only four monks and three lay-brothers.

The house was suppressed along with all the lesser monasteries in 1536, with a clear annual income just over £50, and a community of nine monks.

BASINGWERK abbey, Flintshire was founded around 1131, although the exact date cannot be confirmed. It was established by Ranulf de Gernon, earl of Chester (1129-1153) and was at first a house of the Savigniac Order in Normandy. When all the Savigniac houses were absorbed by the Cistercians in 1147, Basingwerk became Cistercian. Grants of land and property came from both the Welsh princes and the English nobility. Edward I made it his headquarters while he was building Flint castle in 1277 (during his conquest of Wales), and in return for the abbey’s loyalty he granted the monks various privileges. It seems that Basingwerk’s sympathies lay with the English and the abbey provided a chaplain for Flint Castle. The Book of Aneirin, one of the Four Ancient Books of Wales, transcribed in the second half of the thirteenth century, has been ascribed to Basingwerk Abbey. Basingwerk is also thought to have contributed to one of the greatest surviving medieval monastic Welsh annals: the Brut y Tywysogyon of the Chronicle of the Princes.

The monastery was for an abbot and twelve monks, with a number of lay-brothers until the fourteenth century.