Wandsworth Historical Society

Reports on our past lectures in 2025.

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28 March 2025

'Syon Abbey revisited: shedding light on late medieval England's wealthiest nunnery'

Robert Cowie

Robert began by reminding the audience that he began digging with WHS before becoming a professional archaeologist with Museum of London Archaeology. Tonight's talk was a summary of digging in the grounds of Syon House, to locate the remains of Syon Abbey. There was a Time Team dig in 2003, but of very limited duration. Then between 2004 and 2011 Birkbeck College ran training digs each summer for students and much more could be uncovered. Here are a couple of photos of those.

Time Team. Photo © Robert Cowie.

Birkbeck. Photo © Robert Cowie.

The area had both religious and royal connections. Henry V founded Shene (Richmond) Palace, Shene Charterhouse, a Carthusian priory and Syon Abbey, a Bridgettine house. The original location was opposite Shene Palace but in 1431 the Bridgettines moved to Isleworth, in what is now Syon Park. Bridgettenes are a double order founded by a Swedish noblewoman with typically 60 sisters and 25 brothers. Their original abbey is at Vadstena in Sweden and the building arrangements at Syon closely followed the layout there. Whilst Syon Abbey was founded by Henry V, it was built by Henry VI and became one of 16th-century England's richest religious houses.

During the various digs parts of the large church were found as well as the cloisters and residences of the sisters and brothers. The rule was that the nuns were on the north side and the brothers on the south side, each had their own enclosed convent and cloister. In the church there were separate areas with burials also divided in the same way, a number of brick lined graves have been found and some named individuals identified.

Syon Abbey was closed in 1539. In the final years of Mary I's reign, Syon Abbey was briefly restored but later the land passed to the Duke of Northumberland and the current Syon House is his London residence.

For more information see the article in Current Archaeology magazine, issue 382, December 2021, (subcription needed).

The Bridgettenes at Vadstena have a website in Swedish.

Colin Jenkins

28 February 2025 (Online via Zoom)

'A Harley Street for the Poor? The Lives and Times of the Bolingbroke Hospital'

Sue Demont of The Battersea Society.

Sue concentrated her talk on four main points: the origins of the hospital; the buildings; its medical strengths and directions; and benefactions. Bolingbroke was founded in 1876 by Canon Erskine Clarke as a Providential and Self-Supporting Hospital and opened in 1880. It was a paying hospital for artisans and the 'lower middle-classes' - clerks, commercial agents, upper servants - people who had a horror of pauperdom and the workhouse and who could, in theory, afford some limited fees. Over time the hospital expanded, wings were added, including the well-known William Shepherd wing with its concrete balconies; the children's ward with its thirteen tiled panels depicting nursery rhymes; and the 1936 administration block. It is now a Grade II listed building, in part because of the continuity of the architects involved (Young and Hall).

Bolingbroke attracted eminent medical men (no women until the First World War) almost from the start, among them Dr Cecil Lyster, an early practitioner of electrotherapy and radiology. In 1893 a casualty ward was opened, and throughout its existence the hospital had far more outpatients than inpatients, leading to the creation of the Victoria Outpatients wing in 1901 (which today is the Bolingbroke Surgery). From the start funds were needed as many patients struggled to pay the fees, however the hospital attracted generous benefactors and, in addition, from 1905 there was a very active League of Friends. With the reorganisation of the NHS in the mid-1970s the hospital began to struggle. It initially responded by focussing on geriatrics, but in 2008 it finally closed, amid loud protests, and all clinical services were transferred to St John's Therapy Centre.

Celia Jones

31 January 2025 (Online via Zoom)

15th Nick Fuentes Memorial Lecture

'Hopes and fears - archaeology in the City of London after the War'

Dr Peter Marsden

Peter opened by saying that the work done by Nick Fuentes was fundamental to the success of archaeology in the City. Immediate post war archaeology in the City was led by Prof William Grimes who was digging from 1947 to 1962, the highlight his work being the finding the Temple of Mithras with many wonderful sculptures. Another figure from the early days was Ivor Noel Hume who was active from 1950 to 1957 when he went to USA.

Peter himself came to London in 1954 at the age of fourteen when the City was still covered with bomb sites. He started in 1954 helping with recording on building sites, including the discovery of a Roman Barge in Southwark. From 1960 he was employed by the City so worked on many digs until 1973. He said that he felt that he was always in a rush when working on building sites. Not much was known in early 1960s about the remote history of London but this changed with the amount of work that was done. The City of London Excavation Group was set up in 1964 with Nick and Peter. Nick and his successors led work done by volunteers at weekends, whilst Peter and other employed archaeologists worked during the week. Also in 1965 Ralph Merrifield's book on Roman London was published.

Peter then took us on a chronological journey through the history of London. Small traces of Boudican destruction in AD 60 were being found in 1960's. Then more of Flavian London (AD 69-96) was uncovered including Huggin Hill Baths. Roman walls were seen in Bush Lane when London was being rebuilt after the Great Fire, and more was found when Cannon Street Station was being built in the nineteenth century but the records of what was found are now lost. The archaeology appears to show that Cripplegate Fort was not occupied in later part of 2nd century and that fewer rubbish pits in the later 2nd to 3rd and 3rd to 4th centuries compared to the 1st to 2nd century indicate a fall in population.

A Roman shipwreck from the 2nd century was found in 1962. This was well reported in the newspapers at the time which fortunately led to its preservation. Billingsgate Bathouse was also scheduled as an ancient monument and office block plans for the site had to be modified. Archaeology in the City was finally better organised when in 1973 the Department of Urban Archaeology was created, which later became MOLA.

Colin Jenkins

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