Place Name
Bayham Old Abbey was founded in the early 13thCentury by a Premonstratensian order of monks near Lamberhurst, in Kent. The abbey was created out of the two failing monasteries of Otham and Brockley. It was suppressed by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525 in his attempt to gain funding for two of his new colleges, before falling into the hands of Henry VIII in 1538. The ruins were partially modified in the late 18thCentury, to provide a better landscape feature during landscaping of the new Bayham Abbey mansion park. The property was given to English Heritage in 1961. 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.
