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Originally founded in 1178 as a Cistercian Abbey at Stanlaw on the flood plain of the River Mersey, a daughter house of Combermere Abbey (Savigniac then Cistercian), the monks moved to Whalley in 1297 following a series of floods, fire and collapse of the central tower at Stanlaw. Building was not complete until the 1440s. The abbey was very prosperous because of the quality of the lands with which it was endowed in Cheshire and Lancashire and, with an annual income of £900, would have survived the first wave of suppression of the minor houses in 1536 were it not for the association of the last abbot with the Pilgrimage of Grace and his refusal to take the Oath of Supremacy . The abbey was dissolved in 1537. The church survives only at foundation level but the east and especially the west ranges are more substantial.