Wellow Abbey

Wellow Abbey is long gone. So this is for my ghost guide and a bit of history.
The abbey of Wellow was founded, like the priory of Dunstable, by King Henry I and dedicated to St. Augustine and St. Olaf.
During the Scottish wars of Edward II the abbot was required to supply the king with wheat, malt, and sheep to the value of £18, and had £12 10s. 8d besides exacted from him, but these sums were repaid by Edward III.
The house was seriously in debt in 1325, and a secular was appointed to take charge of its affairs for awhile and again, in 1359, arrangements had to be made by the bishop to reduce the expenses of the canons’ maintenance.
Later on, in 1372, the abbot, John Utterby, was accused of having sold, alienated, and dissipated the goods of the house and brought it almost to ruin.
There are wonderful accounts of Bishops Visitations about the kept women and the washing of underwear etc which are really very funny.
In 1534 Robert Whitgift, the abbot, with ten canons, signed the acknowledgement of royal supremacy.
The abbey at this time had a clear revenue of only £95; it consequently fell within the range of the first Act of Suppression.
It was dissolved before Michaelmas, 1536.
I have held the abbey seal in my hand when I worked in Archeology.
A later Victorian House was built on the site. This was the HQ of the RAFA. Before that it was a private house.
This is where the ghost tales begin.
The family often saw monks and knights. Much was dug up in the garden of a knightly interest.
They also regularly heard a carriage come down the drive and pull up at the front door but no-​one was there.
Ok my personal stuff.
A few years ago I had a shop on Abbey land very close to the abbey. It was always cold in there even on the hottest day and once I thought I saw a monk as I looked up from reading. I also did the same in the car park. look up and he was gone.
I had afireplace from the building. bought on demolishion. A few times I woke to a monkly shape that immediately vanished. Did he come with the fireplace.
The weirdest was. visiting grimsby as a child. the boy next door and I loved to explored. We crawled under the hedge into the abbey grounds. We sat with our feet in the pond and watched a frog on the lilypads. 2 days later we went back and there was no pond but a small open air swimming pool.
The monks had a pond.