CROXDEN, a parish in the southern division of
the hundred of TOTMONSLOW, county of STAFFORD, 5
miles (N. N. W.) from Uttoxeter, containing, with the
township of Great Yate, and a portion of the chapelry
of Calton, 273 inhabitants. The living is a perpetual
curacy, in. the archdeaconry of Staiford, and diocese of
Lichfield and Coventry, endowed with £2. 11. 10. per
annum and. £137- 16. private benefaction, £400 royal
bounty, 'and £1000 parliamentary grant, and in the
patronage of the Earl of Macclesfield. The church is
dedicated to St. Giles. Gervase, Lord Pierrepoint, in
1715, bequeathed a rent-charge of £5 for the education
of twelve poor children. Bertram de Verdun, in 1176,
gave the monks of Aulney, in Normandy, a piece
of land at Chotes, or Chotene (probably Cotton), to
build a Cistercian abbey, which three years afterwards
was removed to Croxden, where he and all his
famuy were buried, and also King John's heart; it was
dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and at the general dissolution
had an abbot and twelve religious, whose'
revenue was valued at £ 103. 6. f .: the remains of this
once stately and sumptuous edifice, situated near the
Derbyshire border, exhibit good- specimens of the early
style of English architecture.