Holy Trinity, Minories, London

Holy Trinity stood in the Minories, a district just east of the City of London and within the old liberties of the Tower of London. It began as the chapel of a nunnery founded in 1293 for French nuns of the Order of St Clare. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries the chapel became a parish church in the 16th century. The building was rebuilt in brick in 1706, using the medieval north wall, and served as a Puritan stronghold where John Field and Thomas Wilcox preached. The church claimed status as a royal peculiar until 1730 and held monuments to the Legge family and a mummified head once said to be that of Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk. The church survived the Great Fire of London but fell into disrepair and was rebuilt in 1706 as a plain brick rectangle 19 metres long and 6 metres wide. Its single space held a new pulpit, pews and a wooden turret above the porch for the bells. Inside were memorials to William Legge and his descendants, several Earls of Dartmouth, and the preserved head reputed to be that of Henry Grey. The church also contained a glass case with the mummified head displayed in the vestry. Today only the medieval north wall remains, standing among cleared ground where the church once stood. The pulpit was moved to All Saints Church in East Meon in 1906. The site was used as a parish room until it was destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, and the last remains were cleared between 1956 and 1958. The Minories district still bears the name given by the nuns who once lived there.