Elmbridge Museum Sandstone Head

Originally from Chertsey Abbey and dating to the 12th century, this sandstone head stands witness to some of the most pivotal and calamitous events in Tudor and Stuart England.

Watch the video of Jonathan White, Elmbridge Museum Manager, talking about the Chertsey Abbey Sandstone Head.

Following the Dissolution of the Monasteries during the reign of Henry VIII, Chertsey Abbey was demolished. Much of the Abbey, including the sandstone head, was reused to form the foundations of Oatlands Palace, one of Henry’s great Tudor palaces in Surrey built between 1537-1545.

Used as a Royalist base during the Civil War, Oatlands Palace itself was demolished by Parliamentarian soldiers in 1650.

Elmbridge_Museum_Oatlands_Palace_sandstone_head
Elmbridge Museum Oatlands Palace sandstone head
Copyright: Image courtesy of Brian Wood