Place Name
As with the nearby Abbey Recreation Ground the name references the large Augustinian Priory of Merton which was founded here in 1114 by Gilbert Norman, Sheriff of Surrey under King Henry I. It swiftly gained a reputation as an important centre of learning and diplomacy, and included such luminaries as Thomas Becket, who briefly studied there around 1130. The Priory was demolished following King Henry VIII’s land grab against the Roman Catholic Church, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, having been valued in the Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 at a relatively high sum of £960 16 shillings 6 pence. John Bowles alias John Ramsey surrendered the monastery of 14 canons on April 16, 1538. Much of the masonry was reused at the king’s Nonsuch Palace. The site of the Priory is now occupied by a Sainsbury’s supermarket. Although large by priory standards it was never an Abbey, the name Merton Abbey only came into use for the area in the early 19thCentury.
