Place Name
Bardney Abbey was founded before AD679 but was destroyed by the Danes sometime around AD860. Following the Norman Conquest it was established again in 1087 as a Priory, becoming a Benedictine Abbey in 1115. It was closed under Henry VIII’s suppression of Roman Catholic religious houses in 1538. Writing in the 8thCentury Bede recounts the story of how Bardney Abbey (which he called Beardaneu) was loved by Osthryth, queen of Mercia, and had sought to have the remains of her uncle, the very pious St Oswald, interred there. The monks refused to accept it on the grounds that Oswald had once attacked their kingdom when he was king of Northumbria. The bones were kept outside the abbey and the doors locked. But in the middle of the night they were awoken from their slumbers by a beam of light coming from the casket containing the bones. The monks declared it was a miracle and accepted the body. They are also said to have removed the great doors to the Abbey so that such a mistake could not occur again. So if someone said “do you come from Bardney?”, it meant that you had left the door open. 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.
