PLACE NAME
Sibton Abbey in Suffolk is an early Cistercian abbey founded in about 1150 by William de Chesney, High Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk. Said to have been established in atonement for the sins of his brother, Robert fitz Walter, it takes its name from the parish in which it is situated. Deriving from the Old English personal name Sibba, and tun, the word for a farm or village, it literally means Sibba’s farm. The abbey was closed in 1536 during Henry VIII’s suppression of the monasteries. In 1610 the site was bought by wool merchant John Scrivener who built an estate nearby. His brother Matthew was an early Governor of the Virginia Colony, where he drowned in 1609. Like many of the roads on the St Helier’s estate this is named after British monasteries and abbeys in remembrance of the area’s historic ownership by Westminster Abbey. The road names are in alphabetical order, of which Aberconway Road in the north west of the estate is first.
