St Mary’s Nunnery
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Clerkenwell 101
5 St Mary’s Nunnery was founded around 1144 by Jordan de Bricet, a wealthy Essex landowner from a family of French origin, in what is now Clerkenwell Close. It drew its water from the Clerks’ Well. The Augustine nunnery soon became one of the richest institutions in England. Within 50 years it contained a mill, fish ponds and a meadow. It was dissolved in 1539 by Henry VIII and renamed St James Parish. The dotted lines show the precinct in the early 16th century, positioned on today’s map.
Reference in British History online
The nunnery of St Mary, a house of Augustinian canonesses, was founded shortly after the adjacent Hospitaller priory of St John in about 1144 by the same man, Jordan de Bricet, the lord of Clerkenwell manor (see also page 115). (fn. 1) It stood to the north of the priory, in a field next to the Clerks' Well, the boundaries of the precinct approximating to present-day Farringdon Lane, Clerkenwell Green, St James's Walk and on the north side, though this is not certain, the line now represented by the backs of the plots along the south side of Bowling Green Lane (Ill. 6). A private roadway on the line of present-day Aylesbury Street and Clerkenwell Green gave access from the main north—south roads. By 1160 a curia or wall had been built around the precinct, and further grants later in the century by Bricet and his family also gave the nuns fields and meadows to the north, either side of St John Street.
Lost London – The Nunnery of St Mary, Clerkenwell…
The Church of St James, which stands just to the north of Clerkenwell Green, is all that remains today of the medieval nunnery which once occupied a large swathe of land in the area. The Augustini…
exploring-london.com
Lost London – The Nunnery of St Mary, Clerkenwell… • exploring-london.com
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Vic Keegan: St Mary's Nunnery and the well that gave Clerkenwell its name - OnLondon
The remains of the Clerks’ Well, marked by a plaque at 16 Farringdon Lane, are one of the smallest yet most remarkable bits of medieval Clerkenwell still visible above ground, and the spring water source of the area’s name. You can see what is left of the well through a window of the offices of […]
www.onlondon.co.uk
Vic Keegan: St Mary's Nunnery and the well that gave Clerkenwell its name - OnLondon • www.onlondon.co.uk