Thoby Priory was an Augustinian

priory A priory is a monastery of men or women under religious vows that is headed by a prior or prioress. They were created by the Catholic Church. Priories may be monastic houses of monks or nuns (such as the Benedictines, the Cistercians, or t ...

Mountnessing Mountnessing is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Brentwood in south Essex, England. It is situated to the north-east of Brentwood and south-west of Ingatestone. A large proportion of the houses are situated on the Roman Road between ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. It was first noted as existing during the term of

Robert de Sigello Robert de Sigello (died 1150) was a medieval Bishop of London and Lord Chancellor of England. Life Robert was keeper of the king's seal, usually known as Lord Chancellor from 1133 to 1135.Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 83 He ...

Bishop of London The bishop of London is the Ordinary (church officer), ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury. By custom the Bishop is also Dean of the Chapel Royal since 1723. The diocese covers of 17 boroughs o ...

recorded as Ginges; it was later named Gingestobye after its prior and then Thoby. It was dissolved on 15 February 1525 by

John Alen John Alen (1476 – 28 July 1534) was an English priest and canon lawyer, whose later years were spent in Ireland. He held office as Archbishop of Dublin and Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and was a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. In the l ...

on behalf of

Cardinal Wolsey Thomas Wolsey ( ; – 29 November 1530) was an English statesman and Catholic cardinal. When Henry VIII became King of England in 1509, Wolsey became the king's almoner. Wolsey's affairs prospered and by 1514 he had become the controlling f ...

. Little remains of the priory, principally 15 metres of the southern wall leading to the eastern corner with a further metre running north. The wall is composed of flint rubble and includes some Roman brick and tile. When inspected in 1989 some of the architectural features were obscured by vegetation. In 2014 an archaeological evaluation was conducted by Archaeology South East, funded by CgMs Consulting with a view to the design and implementation of a development proposal. They reported that the site was at that time a

scrap yard Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...

. They investigated the suggestion that a mansion built on the site was built over the priory refectory, however doubt had been cast on this, and the excavations found no supporting evidence. The report recommended the creation of a preservation are: "any redevelopment of the site will take the heritage asset into account and to this end an area of the site will be subject to preservation in situ, where no construction works affecting the buried remains will be permitted. The preservation area will incorporate the

Scheduled Ancient Monument In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a nationally important archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorised change. The various pieces of legislation that legally protect heritage assets from damage, visu ...

and the known extent of the priory foundations and cemetery."

References

Monasteries in Essex {{UK-Christian-monastery-stub