Stratford Langthorne Abbey

The Abbey was self-sufficient for its needs and wealthy besides; some of this wealth came from the ecclesiastic mills grinding wheat for local bakers to supply bread to the City of London.

In a charter dated 25 July 1135, William de Montfichet granted the monks all his lordship of (West) Ham, 11 acres (44,515 m2) of meadow, two mills by the causeway of Stratford, his wood of Buckhurst and the tithe of his pannage.

The following year, the rule was relaxed and monks and lay brothers could remain longer, as long as they provided their own ale and wine; and oats and hay for their horses.

There were also workshops for brewing, shearing, weaving and tannery with farm buildings to service the extensive holdings and mills on the Bow Back Rivers.

In 1267, for a time, the Abbey became the court of Henry III for the visitation of the Papal legates, and it was here that he made peace with the barons under the terms of the Dictum of Kenilworth.

[3] Severe flooding of the Thames in 1338 saw the monks decamp to their landholdings at Great Burstead in Essex,[4] and in 1381, the Abbey was invaded by the Peasants' Revolt and its goods removed and charters burned.

At the Dissolution the land was granted to Sir Peter Meautas and Johanna his wife "for their true and faithful service" and the monks were all pensioned.

A stone window and a carving featuring skulls – thought to have been over the door to the charnel house – remain in All Saints West Ham Parish Church (dating from about 1180).

[8] None of the abbey's buildings remain, but in the early 1990s archaeological investigations were carried out between 1993–94 on land cleared for the new Stratford Market Depot, part of the Jubilee Line Extension.

Analysis of the skeletons indicated an overwhelmingly male cemetery population, as might be expected of a Cistercian monastery, but a few infants, children and women were present in all areas used for burial.