Stoneleigh Abbey Church

Description of this historic site

Stoneleigh Abbey Church was built during the Medieval period. The church no longer exists in its own right but parts of if have been incorporated into a house that was on the same site. It is located to the east of the abbey remains.

Notes about this historic site

1 The S aisle of the conventual church partly survives in the N side of the present house. The semicircular arch at the E end was apparently between the aisle and the S transept. This transept and the building once forming the E side of the cloister can be recognised, and on the E side of the transepts are the remains of the (now blocked up) Roman arches which must have opened originally into chapels. The nave, choir, presbytery and N aisles are gone, although their foundations presumably survive below the turf of the lawns.
5 S aisle shown on plan of Abbey.
6 Summary of a series of watching briefs carried out at Stoneleigh Abbey, in 1999. Trenching by the east wall of the East Wing revealed part of the wall dividing the two side chapels east of the south transept of the Abbey church and part of the north wall of the Chapter House.
7 Summary of a series of watching briefs carried out at Stoneleigh Abbey, in 2001. The remains of two burials were recorded, in what would have been the nave of the abbey church. The burials were oriented east-west, with one lying 0.30m above the other. The fill of one of the graves contained fragments of hand-made roof tile and an iron nail.
8 Summary of a series of watching briefs carried out at Stoneleigh Abbey, in 1998. Most of the trenching over the demolished abbey church was too shallow to penetrate demolition and later layers. One trench, however, located the west end of the church. The west wall was 2.3m wide and its location suggests the nave was c.39m long. The same trench also located the east wall (2.1m wide) of the north transept and an in situ burial immediately to the east.

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