PLACE NAME
Anglesey Abbey, in Cambridge was built on the remains of a 12thCentury Augustinian priory and endowed as a priory by Richard de Clare in 1212. The name is not a reference to the eponymously named island in North Wales, rather to a group of Germanic settlers, the Angles, who arrived on England’s shores in the 5thCentury. The suffix -ey derives from an old Germanic word for island, and in this case likely refers to the fact that, before its drainage, the land on which the priory was built was an island. Literally, an Island of Angles. The abbey was closed in 1536 under the orders of Henry VIII during his cull of the monasteries. Its buildings were largely demolished and the materials used in the construction of Madingley Hall. 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.
