Syon Abbey, Twickenham: where was the first home of the English Bridgettines?

This article (lightly edited) was published in Borough of Twickenham Local History Society Newsletter, (2025); 200: 22-24. It raises questions about where in Twickenham the original Syon Abbey (a Bridgettine foundation) was located. More information about the Bridgettine foundation can be found in The Gardens and People of Twickenham Park.

St Bridget of Sweden, founder of the Bridgettine order (statue in the church of Our Lady of Sorrows and St Bridget of Sweden, Isleworth

On the 22 February 1415 King Henry V laid the foundation stone for the Monastery of St Saviour and St Bridget of Syon, in Twickenham (Aungier, 1840; Jones, 2015). This, together with the issuing of their foundation charter in March, was an important step in his project to found three monasteries in expiation (as recounted by Shakespeare in Henry V, 4.1. 311-313) of the sins of his father in the murder of King Richard and Archbishop Scrope.

The three monasteries were the Bridgettine Monastery of Syon, the Charterhouse of Bethlehem (located in the Old Deer Park) and the Celestines of Jerusalem. The Celestines were a French order, and it is likely that the flare up of the Hundred Years War (the Battle of Agincourt was on 25 October 1415) prevented the foundation of this monastery.

The Bridgettines, founded by St Bridget of Sweden as an Augustinian order, were unusual in being mixed, containing both men and women. Syon Abbey was planned to contain 60 women and 25 men. The women had control over all aspects of the life of the monastery except for the sacramental roles reserved for male priests. Thus the Abbess ran the monastery with the support of female office holders (Jones, 2015).

A number of nuns and priests sent from Sweden helped set up the monastery. Together with men and women from other English religious orders they formed the first community. While there were initial tensions, the community thrived and in 1422  they made their solemn professions as Bridgettines.

The community soon outgrew its location in Twickenham. The Abbess petitioned the King for permission to move to new premises where there was more space and the land was less damp. In 1431 they moved downstream to Isleworth, where Syon House now is. This had been the site planned for the Celestine Monastery.

It has long been supposed that the original Twickenham site for Syon Abbey was in Twickenham Park (the area currently bounded by the Thames, Richmond Road and St Margarets Road (George, 2025)). The earliest such claim I have found is by Ironside (1797), though it has been regularly repeated (Aungier, 1840; Bunten, 1912; Urwin, 1965; Cloake, 1995).

The Foundation charter from Henry V gives the location of the monastery as [1]:

…in a certain parcel of land of our demesne of our manor of Isleworth, within the parish of Twickenham in the county of Middlesex; containing, namely, in length near the field towards Twickenham from a stone placed on the north side unto another stone placed on the south side 1938 feet; and in breadth towards the south from that stone placed in the south side, unto the water of the Thames, 960 feet; and in length by the bank of the Thames, from a stone likewise placed by the aforesaid bank at the north side, to another like stone placed on the south side by the bank aforesaid, 2820 feet, and in breath from the north side from the aforesaid stone placed on the north side unto the water of the Thames, 980 feet, ….

This results in an unusual irregular quadrilateral shaped parcel of land. Alan Urwin speculated that the enclosure was bounded on one side by the lake of the St Margarets Lake Grounds (Urwin, 1965) (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Anachronistic map showing possible sites for Syon Abbey in Twickenham. The modern roads and railway are shown. The sites of the enclosure proposed in (Urwin, 1965) (S1) and postulated in this paper (S2) are shown in green. The boundary between Isleworth and Twickenham is a broken line (the earliest map showing this boundary in detail is Moses Glover Map of 1635). Shene Palace (P) and the lands belonging to Charterhouse (C) are shown in red and the New Park of Shene, founded by Henry VI, (NPS) in yellow. The north boundary of S2 is on what is now Richmond Road. There was an old footpath that ran from Twickenham to Richmond Ferry that follows that line. If that footpath existed in 1415 it would have been a natural boundary to the enclosure.

There are more clues in a grant issued the following year giving the monastery lands appropriated from suppressed alien priories. In addition to the dimensions given in the 1415 charter, the 1416 grant [2] adds;

…and all fisheries within the water aforesaid opposite the aforesaid parcel, viz. between the two banks of the same water; also a certain ront [3] situated opposite the same parcel for taking the fishes in the same water;…

This description poses problems for the location of the Abbey in Twickenham Park. First, the Abbey is described as in Twickenham, yet a significant part of it would have been in Isleworth and would have been equidistant from the two parish churches. The description of it being next to a field leading into Twickenham does not fit, given at that time Twickenham consisted of a collection of houses along the roads around the Parish Church. The shape of land is also unusual, and the river does not run south to north in that stretch but rather south-east to north-west, which is not consistent with the location of the marker stones.

Perhaps most problematic; the grant states that the Monastery had a fishery on the opposite side of the Thames. Fisheries were weirs used to capture fish or, in some cases, side channels where fish could be caught and stored (Solomon, 2021). The bank opposite the proposed Twickenham Park site was the location of Shene Palace (being built by Henry V) and the Charterhouse monastery. The land between the palace and Charterhouse remained in the King’s possession, becoming the New Park of Shene. It is highly improbable that the Bridgettines would have controlled a fishery on this bank.

Where else might the monastery have been? One possibility is between Richmond Bridge and Marble Hill. If the dimensions from the charter are mapped onto this area then, allowing for the bend in the river, the dimensions of the plot make more sense (Figure 1). This plot is also totally within Twickenham, and could be described as backing onto the village.

There were two fisheries in Petersham and Ham (Cloake, 2001). The fishery in Petersham was owned by Chertsey Abbey until 1415 when they gave it to King Henry V (this fishery was noted in the Domesday Book having a rental of 1000 eels and 1000 lampreys a year (Solomon, 2021)). The King bought Ham from Sir Hugh Burnell in the same year. Syon and the Charterhouse were each given one of these fisheries (it is suggested that Syon was given Ham (Cloake, 2001)).

The Abbey at Syon owned considerable amount of land in Twickenham, in addition to the enclosure. There are grants of land in 1415 giving the Abbey land between the ‘King’s ditch’ between the Field of Twickenham and his land, that is 2800 feet north to south and 940 feet to the river. This may include the land already granted, or be in addition. In 1421 they were given all the King’s land in Isleworth (which included Twickenham), much of which was returned in 1504. The Abbey would therefore have owned what is now referred to as Twickenham Park, though their enclosure was likely to be upstream.

Figure 2: The palace and religious foundations of Henry V. The King’s Great Work involved the rebuilding of Shene Palace (3), as well as the Carthusian monastery (2) and a proposed Celestine monastery (1). The latter became the home of the Bridgettines once they moved from Twickenham. The two possible sites of Syon Abbey in Twickenham are (4) and (5). The churches of Petersham, Twickenham, Shene (now Richmond) and Isleworth, as well as the ferry crossing of the Thames, are shown.

This is not the place to recount in detail the story of Syon Abbey following their removal to Isleworth. It is worth noting that, following the dissolution of the monasteries, they moved to Europe. In 1861 they returned to live in Dorset and then Devon (by this time a female only order). They maintained many of their traditions, including praying for their founder and patron, Henry V.  While for many years they were a thriving order, vocations dried up (Jones, 2015). There is now just one nun remaining, who lives in Plymouth. She is the last representative of the only order directly connected to the pre-reformation religious life of England.

This analysis casts doubt on the location conventionally suggested for the original Syon Abbey. It speculates on an alternative position. The evidence provided is not conclusive, and it would require archaeological or further archival evidence to provide definitive proof of the Abbey’s location. Whatever the truth, Syon Abbey in Twickenham was undoubtedly part of an important series of developments by Henry V (the King’s Great Work) that included his Palace of Shene, Charterhouse, Syon Abbey and the proposed Celestine Monastery (Cloake, 1995) (Figure 2).

References

Aungier, G. J. (1840). The History and Antiquities of Syon Monastery the Parish of Isleworth and the Chapelry of Houslow. London: JB Nicols and Son.

Bunten, A. C. (1912). Twickenham Park and Old Richmond Palace, and Francis Bacon Lord Verulam's Connection with Them. 1580-1608. London: Robert Banks & Son.

Cloake, J. (1995). Palaces and Parks of Richmond and Kew. Volume I: The Palaces of Shene and Richmond. Cheltenham: Phillimore & Co Ltd.

Cloake, J. (2001). Cottages and Common Fields of Richmond and Kew. Chichester: Phillimore & Co Ltd.

George, A. J. T. (2025). The Gardens and People of Twickenham Park. Bristol: Redcliffe Press.

Ironside, E. (1797). The History and Antiquities of Twickenham. Being the First Part of Parochial Collections for the County of Middlesex. London: John Nichols.

Jones, E. A. (2015). England’s Last Medieval Monastery. Syon Abbey 1415-2015. Leominster: Gracewing.

Solomon, D. J. (2021). A History of Fish and Fisheries of the River Thames. Wallingford: Fluvial Books.

Urwin, A. C. B. (1965). Twicknam Parke. Privately published.

Acknowledgement

I would like to thank the University of Exeter Special Collections for access to the Syon Abbey Archives.

[1] The various charters referred to are available in a collection compiled by Canon John Rory Fletcher that is held in the Syon Abbey Archives in the University of Exeter. Many can also be found in publications cited in the text.

[2] In addition to lands around the country, the grant also gives the Abbey two dovecots with surrounding land in Petersham and Ham.

[3] When confirming the grant Henry VI used a similar description saying ‘…also a certain fishery called ‘Ronte’, opposite the same parcel..’