In search of the Brigittine abbey

Today the Duke of Northumberland owns the magnificent Syon House in west London. Nearly 600 years ago, however, the land belonged to a group of nuns who settled here from Sweden: the Brigittines.

By the time of Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s, Syon Abbey, as it was then known, was one of the richest in the land. The order, a mixed establishment with both monks and nuns in the same abbey, was highly successful. Yet today nothing remains above ground to indicate the presence of a massive church of the type the order was known to have built elsewhere. Time Team set out to investigate what lies beneath the surface.

Geofizz gets in early
The geophysics team started by owning up to the fact that they surveyed the area some years ago. The striking results indicate archaeological features all over the site. Without excavation, though, it was impossible to be sure which of these relate to the abbey and which are part of Capability Brown's later landscaping and garden features. Multiple trenches were excavated by the Team to try to find evidence of the abbey's church and the activities that took place there.

Huge church
Foundations were soon discovered for a colossal 100-metre (328 feet) long church, which would also have been 40 metres (131 feet) wide. Though the walls had been almost completely robbed away (so the stone could be reused), the foundation trenches clearly defined the huge scale of the building.

Nuns' burials
Trenches south of the church building also uncovered what is thought to be the nuns' cloister. Here the remains of two nuns were discovered, one with pins used to keep the wearer's veil in place still in-situ on the skull.

Final prize
The final prize was the discovery of medieval walls in the cellar of Syon House, indicating that the modern house was constructed over the western end of the original church. There may have been no lumps and bumps above ground to indicate that a massive monastic building was here, but the archaeology in the trenches and the cellars solved the mystery and located the Brigittine monastic complex. With a previously undocumented church the size of Salisbury cathedral, it may turn out to be the most important medieval discovery for a generation, according to some experts

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