Sopwell Nunnery Green Space

Cottonmill Nunnery Allotments

Agriculture/Grazing

Snake or a Slow Worm basking in the sunshine or warming themselves on the compost heap.

The allotments are known as Nunnery 1 and Nunnery 2 and over the years collectively as the Nunnery Allotment Site.  There are public open days at specific times of the year.

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River Ver

Water Habitat

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Sir Richard Lee

Site of historical interest

Sir Richard Lee (c.1513-1575) was a professional soldier and military engineer. He was a friend of King Henry VIII and, following the dissolution of the monasteries in England, Sir Richard purchased the Abbey grounds from St Albans Abbey. He was also granted ownership of the Sopwell Priory by the King and tore down the Priory and built a Tudor house, which he named Lee Hall. The ruins of Lee Hall still survive today on Cottonmill Lane. When Sir Richard Lee died in 1575, he was buried in St Peter’s Church, St. Albans.
Additional Information can be found at St Albans Museum

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Sopwell Nunnery Ruins

Site of historical interest

Commonly called Sopwell Nunnery, the ruins are here should rightly be known as Lee Hall. The Nunnery or Priory, constructed around 1140 by Abbot Geoffrey, was of Benedictine order and dependant on the Abbey. The land on which the ruins stood was purchased by Sir Richard Lee, and advisor to Henry VIII, who paid the Crown �13 and 6 shillings for full ownership following the Dissolution of the Monasteries.  He demolished the nunnery and built a house on the foundations. Later in his life he began work to create a more fashionable Tudor style building but died before this was complete. Th emain buildings lingered until the 18th century with the gatehouse used in the 1950s as a motorcycle repair shop. Visible remians include the gatehouse, one wing of an H-shaped structure, the adjoining cross-wing and a kitchen at the back.

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Spring Wildflower Meadow

Meadow

This area of wet grassland sometimes floods in winter. Wet grassland is home to specialist flowers and insects, it is increasingly rare inHe rtfordshire where changes in agriculturalpractic es and development pressure have lead to its loss

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Summer Wildflower Meadow

Meadow

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Wet Woodland

Woodland

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