ABSTRACT
The Abbey’s properties in Lincolnshire, acquired in the latter half of the 12th century, have had little attention from its historians, and documentation is scarce. Rentals of 1212-13 and 1303-04 give details of the holdings. Saltmaking was the raison d’être for Bury’s presence at Wainfleet, and the production processes are described; the Wrangle property was subordinate and seemingly not a source of salt. A custumal of 1234 records salt as a commodity passing through the port of Wainfleet; it was probably shipped from there across the Wash to reach Bury via King’s Lynn. St Edmund’s chapel at Wainfleet, founded c. 1150–60, had become ruinous by 1374; it was then repaired and pilgrimages made to it, and was still in existence in 1527. A payment by Stixwould priory to the Abbey in respect of a dispute in the 1180s was still being made in the 1470s.
