A is for Abbey - Beauchief Abbey
Beauchief Abbey was founded by Robert Fitzranulph (Lord of Alfreton) between 1172 and 1176, dedicated to St. Thomas à Becket. It was opened around 1183 as part of the Premonstratensian order, a small community of 12 canons and an abbot. The canons were ordained priests, serving nearby and distant villages, often providing vicars for parish churches. Welbeck Abbey was its "mother" house, and Beauchief controlled vast farmlands and woodlands, extending to areas like Chesterfield and Hathersage. The abbey operated numerous mills, including a "walk mill" for cloth fulling, and engaged in iron working and corn grinding. Water from two streams and fish ponds, likely dating to abbey times, supported the community’s needs. The abbey was dissolved in 1536 under Henry VIII, with its lands sold to Sir Nicholas Strelley for £223. The estate remained with his descendants, linked to the Pegge family, until 1923.
In the 1660s, Edward Pegge restored the convent chapel, converting it into a church. The chapel may have been rebuilt around 1750. In 1923, Frank Crawshaw bought the estate and later gifted Beauchief Abbey to Sheffield in 1931. The west window was restored in 1967, and the tower roof in the 1980s. The chapel features 18th-century box pews and memorials and remains a place of regular Christian worship.
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