Monument record 830/2/0 - Vale Royal House

An early estate map of Vale Royal shows formal gardens to the south and west of Vale Royal House in the 17th century. The gardens show as formal bedding and tree planting and were partly enclosed by walls and water-filled ditches. Resistivity and magnetometry survey carried out near the house in 1989 ahead of housing development proposal. This survey located robbed out walls, interpreted as monastic buildings in the north part of the study area, and two levelling episodes, one possibly relating to the 17th century garden and a later 19th century levelling. Vale Royal House was created from the buildings of Vale Royal Abbey following the dissolution. In 1539, Henry VIII ordered the abolition of the many monasteries of Britain. He set out to gain their wealth and power for himself as the newly designated head of the Church of England. Monasteries, abbeys and priories were looted for their valuables and destroyed. These ruins often became a convenient source of building stone and few survive to any height today.