Syon Monastery - New Building

New Building

The letters patent authorising the move, which were ratified by a grant by the King dated 1431, make clear that some of the new buildings had already been started and indeed completed:

“The Abbess and convent...had begun and with great cost completed the erection of a certain edifice more spacious and convenient as well for the habitation of themselves as of the said religious brethren, which monastery so built anew and enlarged they have earnestly requested licence of us ...to consecrate and set apart as a habitation for them the said abbess and nuns and men of religion...Know ye we therefore of our pity have...permitted them...to the said mansion so chosen and by the said abbess and convent erected edified built and enlarged as aforesaid...to remove immediateley...”

It seems that this building, apparently living quarters or “mansion” must have been started several years before 1431 to have been described as “completed” in the letters of patent issued before 1431

There was however another building, possibly the new Church-building itself, which still had not been completed 11 years later, by 1442, when Henry VI issued further letters patent granting the Abbess and Convent special privileges for the transport of building materials from the King's warren in the royal manor of Sheen across the river to Isleworth:

That none of the masons, carpenters and tilers or any of their workmen or any of their materials to be employed towards the construction of the new Monastery of Syon, should be taken away by any his officers against their will.

The new site of the church building itself is now believed, after recent archaeological work, to lie partly underneath and to the east of the present Georgian mansion of Syon House. (see below: Archaeological Excavations).