PLACE NAME
Directional, leading to Twyford Abbey, which is not in fact a religious house, but the name of a Gothic mansion built in 1806 by Thomas Willan, a stagecoach owner on land once belonging to the lords of the manor of West Twyford. In 1593, the original manor, which started life in the Middle Ages and takes its name from a local brook, held the distinction of being the only inhabited house in West Twyford. Willan employed William Atkinson to enlarge and rebuild the property in a Gothic style, filling in the moat, and making significant alterations to its small private chapel (today St Mary’s West Twyford). In 1902 the property was bought by the Alexian Brothers, a Roman Catholic order who set up a nursing home there which closed in 1988. In 2017 architects Walters & Cohen were given the go-ahead to convert the property into a secondary school. Originally called Twyford Lane, the street was described in the 13thCentury as a lane from the house and church of West Twyford to London.
