Croyland and Crowland

The name Croyland Abbey needs some explanation, for to those of us who live here in Crowland it refers, not to a monastery, but to the building that is the centre of prayer and worship for the Church of England in the town of Crowland, Lincolnshire.

There was once an abbey here, but it ceased to exist in A.D. 1539, when Henry VIII’s government had it closed down. Before 1539 Croyland was the largest monastery in Lincolnshire and one of the most important monasteries in England. It had a large and beautiful church. The nave of this church still stands as a picturesque ruin. What is today known as Croyland Abbey was only the north aisle of the old abbey church. This north aisle was saved from destruction because it was in use as the church of the townspeople well before 1539. As the town of Croyland grew up beside the abbey, the monks eventually allowed the north aisle to be walled off from the rest of the abbey church in order that the monks and the townspeople could each carry out their distinct patterns of prayer without the one group disturbing the other. Although popularly known as Croyland Abbey, the proper name for this church is the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Bartholomew, and Saint Guthlac.

The word Croyland, which tends to be used today only when speaking of the abbey or its church building, is the older spelling of the word Crowland. Apart from reminding us of this older spelling, the word Croyland does not make us think that the name for this place has something to do with crows, rooks, or jackdaws. Although there are a large number of these birds living in the trees of the churchyard that surrounds Croyland Abbey, the most likely meaning of Croyland or Crowland is not “land of the crows,” but “marshland.”