THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
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boundary wall of the firm mentioned, may have been originally part of
the "Gesten Hall."
A gruesome sculpture of early 16th century date, preserved in the
tower of West Ham parish church, is the only other known relic of the
vanished Abbey: but the abundance of stone built into the banks of
the neighbouring Channelsea river, in a district utterly devoid of natural
stone of the sort, is significant and implies that the ruins of the dissolved
monastery were used as a quarry for later needs. Indeed. Lyson, in
1796, speaks of Mr. Thomas Holbrook, the then proprietor (he who died
in 1811, already referred to) as having dug up and removed the foundations
of the Abbey, and the author of the "Excursions through Essex," published
in 1818, states roundly that Holbrook, "after having built walls with
"some of the stones dug up, sold large quantities of them to considerable
"advantage."
Even in the early part of the 18th century but few remains of the
Abbey buildings were still standing. A MS. account of a visit paid to
the site by a Mr. Martin—now in the possession of Mr. John Avery—
gives a rough sketch of a gateway and records :—
"On Sunday ye ------ of Apr. 1732 I saw this old Door way
"belonging to ye Pryory of Westham in Part of ye Dovehouse and
"some of ye Circuit Walls are yet standing, as are some timber
"Buildings on ye opposite side of ye Road which seem to have
"belong'd to this Religious House by their Antiquity. The Church
"and Church Yard are converted into a Spacious Garden to which is
"annex'd a little Tipling house, and the whole made a Rendezvous
"for Fellows and Wenches in ye Summer Season. The sign is Adam
"and Eve."
The entrance gateway to the precincts, which stood slightly to the
west of the present Manor Road, is stated to have been demolished in
1825, it being then in ruinous condition.
A fragment of four pages, being a copy of part of the Cartulary, or
Register, of the Abbey is preserved in the Library of Trinity College,
Dublin: a photographic facsimile of this, with a transcript, is in the
Essex Museum at Stratford.
From Messrs. Ingham, Clark's premises a short walk brought the
visitors to the Abbey Mill on the Channelsea River, which, although now
closed down, had been kindly opened for inspection by the Club by
Messrs. James Hunt, Ltd. The mill wheel, the millstones and the beam
engine referred to in the following account of the Mill were in turn
curiously inspected.
THE ABBEY MILLS.
The history of the Abbey mills goes back to a century earlier than that
of the Abbey itself, for Doomsday tells us that in the reign of Edward
the Confessor (1042—1066) the manor of Alestan, a Saxon freeman in
Hamme (the modern West Ham), possessed 9 mills, one of which was
undoubtedly that known in Good Queen Maud's time as "Wiggens
Mill," with which she endowed the Causeway and Bridges between Bow
and Stratford made by her order at the opening of the 12th century, and
which mill stood on this very spot. The mill which we see to-day may be
said to have been grinding corn continuously, with but a few years'