Place Name
Named after the former Twyford Abbey, which was not in fact a religious house, but the name of a Gothic manor house designed in 1808 by William Atkinson. It was built on the site of the West Twyford manor, which with a small private chapel, had stood there since at least 1593, holding the distinction of being the only inhabited property in the area. In 1806 Thomas Willan, a stagecoach owner, bought the property and employed William Atkinson to enlarge it. His new extension was in the popular Gothic style, filling in the moat and making alterations to the church. In 1902 it was bought by the Alexian Brothers, a Roman Catholic order, who set up a nursing home. It closed in 1988. And in 2017 architects Walters & Cohen were given the go-ahead to convert Twyford Abbey, a Grade II-listed property into a 1,150-capacity secondary school.
