Sopwell Nunnery

Social History (Museum of St Albans)

1981.3939

Watercolour and line drawing of Sopwell Nunnery. Not signed, no date. Possibly by one of the Brabant sisters (black border same as other work by Miss Mary Brabant). These are not the ruins of Sopwell Nunnery, but the remains of a house built on that site by Sir Richard Lee, who was Henry VIII’s military surveyor and a very wealthy man. He was granted the nunnery and its lands after the Dissolution. Queen Elizabeth I stayed there in 1564. The house is built of brick and flint and Totternhoe clunch, a soft local chalky stone, probably recycled from the nunnery buildings. Old London Road and Sopwell Lane became the main route to London when Sir Richard diverted the original road which passed too close to his house. In the late 17th century the house was sold to the Grimston family who by then owned Gorhambury, and they used materials from the house for building works at Gorhambury.

PX7031sopwell.tif

Amy Cooke

4) Verulamium Archive Room

Sopwell Nunnery, Cottonmill Lane, St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK.

PWD Box 5.

11/09/2006