Ankerwycke's Hidden History

Ankerwycke's Hidden History. A place of tranquillity where history meets nature. , Across the river, the white walls of St. Mary Magdalene's Priory stand out against the trees. Founded in 1160, its nuns worshipped here for nearly 400 years before it was closed in 1536 by the Court of Augmentations. The Court was tasked with seizing the property of the Catholic Church, after Henry VIII became Head of the Church in England., In 1551 King Edward VI gave the priory to one of his key advisors, Sir Thomas Smith, who built himself a fine courtier's mansion overlooking the Thames. A small section of the priory survived within its walls., After Smith's house was pulled down by John Blagrove in 1805, the remains of the priory became a garden feature in Blagrove's landscaped parkland. Blagrove's house burned down in the 1960s and was demolished in 1992. The chalk walls of the priory still stand, a remarkable survivor and reminder of Ankerwycke's vanished past., Air Forces Memorial , If you look behind you, just above the trees, you can see the tower of the Air Forces Memorial. The Memorial was built in 1953 to commemorate over 20,000 men and women from Britain and the Commonwealth who lost their lives in the Second World War and whose remains were never recovered.