Crowland

Crowland, or CROYLAND, an ancient market-town in the south of Lincolnshire, on the Welland, in the Fens, 10 miles NNE. of Peterborough. Here in 716 King Ethelwald founded a monastery in honour of the hermit St Guthlac, which, burned by the Danes in 870, and again destroyed by fire in 1091, was restored in 1113, and thereafter became a mitred Benedictine abbey of singular magnificence. The north aisle of its church now serves as the parish church, and part of the west front also remains. Ingulph (q.v.) was abbot of Croyland. Pop. of parish, 2929. See G. Perry's Croyland Abbey (1867). The 'Triangular Bridge' is described in our article BRIDGE, Vol. II. p. 436.