Barking Abbey - AD 666 to 1539 - Barking, London, UK
N 51° 32.174 E 000° 04.500
31U E 297148 N 5713514
The ruins of Barking Abbey lie to the west of the town centre and lie between Broadway and North Street to the east and Abbey Road to the west. An information board shows the Abbey to have been in use from AD 666 to 1539.
Waymark Code: WMJ24B
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/11/2013
Views: 2
The information board, that is held in a wooden frame, tells us:
Barking Abbey
666 - 1539
Barking Abbey was founded in AD 666 by a monk called
Erkenwald for his sister Ethelburga. This first abbey was a double house
containing both monks and nuns but under the control of an abbess. The abbey
was destroyed by Vikings in AD 871 and restored about a century later as a
single-sex Benedictine nunnery under the patronage of the Kings of Wessex
and England. By 1066 it was large enough to accommodate the new King William
the Conqueror and his followers. Towards the end of that year many of the
Saxon earls and lords made their way to Barking to swear allegiance to their
new king. In later centuries royal grants made Barking Abbey the second
richest abbey in the country with estates in Essex, Middlesex, London and
Surrey.
The abbey was surrendered to the Crown in 1539 during the period of the
Dissolution of the Monasteries. Demolition began the following year and took
18 months. Good stone and lead was reused at the king's manor house at
Dartford and at Greenwich Palace.
In 19l1 the site of the Abbey was excavated. The walls of the abbey church,
cloisters and surrounding buildings were rebuilt in stone and the site was
laid out as a small park.
Since the 1960s archaeological excavations close to the ruins have revealed
fragments of the earliest abbey destroyed by the Vikings They reveal a nrh
and sophisticated community that used rare coloured glass vessels, imported
fine pottery from France and Spain, and whose women wore jewellery and
elaborate bone combs. There Is even evidence that they were weaving gold
thread into cloth probably for church vestments Large numbers of writing
Implements, known as styluses (or styli), show that the inhabitants were
educated people.
Type of 666: Other
If you selected "other", please explain: An information board for some Abbey ruins.
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