Merton Priory

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Merton Priory was founded in 1114 by Gilbert Norman, Sheriff of Surrey under Henry I. It was located in Merton, Surrey, England (now the Colliers Wood area in the London Borough of Merton).

By 1117 the foundation was colonised by canons from the Augustinian priory at Huntingdon and re-sited in Merton, close to the River Wandle. The priory became distinguished as an important centre of learning attracting such pupils as Nicholas Breakspeare in 1125 (who became Adrian IV, the first English Pope, in 1154), and Thomas Becket in 1130.

Walter de Merton (Lord Chancellor, Bishop of Rochester, and founder of Merton College, Oxford) took his name from the Priory, having been educated there in the 1230s.

In 1236 Henry III held a Parliament at the Priory at which the Statute of Merton was agreed allowing Lords of the Manor to enclose common land provided that sufficient pasture remained for their tenants.

The Priory was demolished in 1538, under Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries and much of the masonry was reused at Nonsuch Palace. The site of the Priory is now occupied by Sainsbury's Merton branch. Remains of the Priory's Chapter House can be seen in the foot tunnel under Merantun Way, between Sainsbury's and Merton Abbey Mills.