STRATFORD ABBEY PRECINCTS. (fn. 1)
The abbey
of Stratford Langthorne lay between the Channelsea
river and Marsh Lane (Manor Road) on a site now
occupied by factories, railways, and a sewage pumping station. None of its buildings remain in situ.
The abbey precincts appear to have comprised about
20 a., moated to north, east, and south. They constituted a separate parish, with its own parish church,
distinct from the abbey church. The abbey exercised
peculiar jurisdiction within the precincts. (fn. 2)
When the abbey was dissolved in 1538 several of
the buildings in the precincts were occupied by lay
persons, mostly under leases granted during the
past five years. In 1539 the abbey site and the
reversion of the other property in the precincts were
granted to Sir Peter Meautis or Mewtas (d. 1562),
later ambassador to France. During the next two
centuries the ownership of the precincts came to be
divided between several owners. By 1732 an alehouse, the Adam and Eve, had been built on part
of the site. That, with the adjoining land to east
and south, was bought in 1784 by Thomas Holbrook
(d. 1811), a brewer, who dug up the abbey foundations, used some of the stone for building and sold
much of the rest. (fn. 3) In the 1840s the North Woolwich
railway was built through the site, running north to
south about 70 yd. east of the Adam and Eve. The
site was again disturbed by railway works in the 1870s.
STRATFORD LANGTHORNE ABBEY SITE IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY
The topography of the precincts is not precisely
known and the accompanying plan is partly conjectural. The main conventual buildings were
probably demolished soon after the Dissolution.
They were clearly in the immediate vicinity of the
Adam and Eve. The existence of an ancient waterpipe and an ancient sewer, both running west to the
Adam and Eve, suggest that the domestic offices
of the abbey to which they were probably connected
lay south of the road through the precincts, with
the church south of them. Such an arrangement
would have been consistent with local custom. In
west Essex most of the monasteries of which the
plans are known, including Stratford's neighbours
at Waltham and Barking, had churches to the south
of the other conventual buildings. (fn. 4) Such a layout
is also consistent with the position of the abbey
court at Stratford which lay on the north side of the
precincts. Extensive building seems to have been
going on at the abbey in the 13th century. (fn. 5) A great
west window in the abbey church was mentioned
in 1400 as newly built. (fn. 6) That work may have been
connected with the patronage of Richard II, who
came to the help of the abbey when it was in financial
difficulties resulting from floods and other causes. (fn. 7)
Leland's story that floods caused the temporary
evacuation of the abbey probably relates to the same
period. (fn. 8) When completed the conventual buildings probably occupied a frontage of about 180 yd.
on the road through the preeincts, and extended
south for some 140 yd. Medieval masonry recorded
from that area included a 13th-century arch which
survived until c. 1870 in a wall at the Adam and
Eve. Fragments of a two-light window of uncertain
date, which are now (1971) in the long porch of All
Saints church, West Ham, probably came from the
conventual site. They were formerly built into a
wall west of the Adam and Eve on the opposite side
of the road. All Saints church also has an octagonal
font bowl which may originally have come from the
abbey. It was found on the site of the leathercloth
factory just outside the precincts. Another probable
relic of the abbey preserved in the church is a stone
carved with five skulls. It was found c. 1874 in an
ancient burial ground, during railway works near
the Adam and Eve. Other sepulchral remains were
found in the same area in the 18th and 19th centuries, including stone and lead coffins. It is usually
assumed that these were all associated with the
abbey, but the mention of urns in one report suggests an earlier period, and it may be significant that
the site of the leathercloth factory was once called
Barrow field. (fn. 9) Various other objects, since dispersed, have been found at the abbey, including an
onyx seal depicting a griffin with the legend 'Nunc
vobis gaudium et salutem'. (fn. 10)
Among the buildings in the precincts in 1539 was
the Lodge, a moated house lying on the southern
side near Marsh Lane. This may well have occupied
the site of a manor-house even older than the abbey. (fn. 11)
It apparently still existed in 1747, when it was called
the Abbey House. Near the west end of the abbey
church was a house occupied in 1538 by Lady de
Vere and previously by the countess of Salisbury. (fn. 12)
It was demolished immediately after the Dissolution.
On the north side of the precincts was the parish
church, dedicated to St. Mary and All Saints, and
near it the 'pore fermery' and the 'gesten hall', both
leased as private residences. In the same area were
several other unnamed houses, one of which was on
lease to Peter Vannes, dean of Salisbury. The gesten
hall and Vannes's house appear to have survived
until the early 19th century. The Abbey Mill, on the
Channelsea river, is treated elsewhere. (fn. 13) Adjoining
it were the bakehouse and kilnhouse. The slaughter-house was in the grange yard, near the Lodge. A
tannery, in the north-east corner of the precincts,
went out of use shortly before the Dissolution. (fn. 14)
The main (eastern) entrance to the precincts was
from Abbey Road through the Great Gate, which
stood in the present Baker's Row, about 170 yd.
from the Adam and Eve. (fn. 15) The gatehouse survived
until about 1825. Its outer (eastern) side was of brick,
apparently of the late 15th or early 16th century.
The inner side was of timber with foliated spandrels.
St. Richard's chapel, near the Great Gate, was
probably identical with a chapel there mentioned in
1334. (fn. 16) It seems to have disappeared by 1576. The
western entrance to the precincts was from Abbey
Lane through the Kilnhouse Gate.