Stratford Langthorne Abbey, or the Abbey of St Mary's, Stratford Langthorne was a Cistercian monastery founded in 1135 at Stratford Langthorne — then Essex but now Stratford in the London Borough of Newham by William de Montfitchet. The Abbey, also known as West Ham Abbey as it lay in that parish, was one of the largest Cistercian abbeys in England, possessing 1,500 acres (6.07 km2) of local land, controlling over 20 manors throughout Essex.[1] The Abbey was self-sufficient for its needs and wealthy besides; some of this wealth came from the ecclesiastic mills grinding wheat for local bakers to supply bread to the City of London. The Abbey existed until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1538. It was the fifth largest in England. At the dissolution, the land was granted to Sir Peter Meautas and Johanna his wife "for their true and faithful service" and the monks were all pensioned. The Abbey laid between the Channelsea River and Marsh Lane (Manor Road). Nothing visible remains on the site, as local landowners took away much of the stone for their own buildings, and by 1840, the North Woolwich railway was built through the site, and factories and Stratford wholesale Market were established on the remaining land. A stone window and a carving featuring skulls – thought to have been over the door to the charnel house – remain in All Saints West Ham Parish Church. The Great Gate of the abbey survived in Baker's Row until 1825. None of the abbey's buildings remain, but in the early 1990s archaeological investigations were carried out between 1993–94 on land cleared for the new Stratford Market Depot, part of the Jubilee Line Extension. 647 burials were excavated from the Cistercian cemetery and reburied at Mount St. Bernard Abbey in Leicestershire. Excavation continues on the site as the remaining former factories are redeveloped.