page_title: Sinai Park House
section_title: Monastic use
hierarchical_section_title: Sinai Park House / Monastic use
context_page_description: Sinai Park House is a grade II* listed building near Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. Consisting of a central range with two wings the building is sited on a ridge of high ground near a chalybeate spring. The earliest remains of the site date to the 13th-century and it was occupied by the de Scobenhal family before being donated to Burton Abbey. The house was used as a place of convalescence for monks recovering from blood-letting procedures and its original name "seyney house" derived from the Old French "seyne" for blood. The estate was increased by enclosure and used as a hunting ground for the abbot. Much of the estate and house were let out by the early 16th century. The estate came into the hands of the Paget family after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The Pagets used it for hunting and let out part of the estate to farmers. The house adopted its modern name of Sinai by the end of the 18th-century, a biblical reference.
  The estate was sold to pay off the debts of the eccentric Henry Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey and by 1918 was used as a cooperative society farm.
context_section_description: The site is thought likely to have been occupied at an early period of history due to the presence of a natural chalybeate (iron-bearing) spring.  However, the earliest proven evidence of occupation is the moat and some of the surviving cellar stonework which date to the 13th century.  The site lay was occupied by the de Scobenhal (or Schobenhale) family, after whom it was named Shobnall Park; the surrounding area is still known as Shobnall.  The family donated the site to the monks of Burton Abbey who used it as a "seyney house", a place of convalescence and a site to recuperate from blood-letting sessions.  The word "seyney" derives from the Old French "seyne" meaning blood.  The house became known as the Seyney House sometime between 1410 and 1529.  The site was one of only a handful of seyney houses known in England and it retained this use until at least the 1380s.
  The house was  originally just a central hall with a cross passage; though at some point it probably had a screens passage entrance at the west end.  The hall was later remodelled with a central entrance via a porch with upper stories added around the same time.  The abbey relocated two timber-framed buildings from Burton to the site to form two structurally separate dormitory wings either side of the hall.  The house had an oratory by 1410 when it was granted the right to hold the eucharist there.  The house ceased to be used by the monks in the early 16th century when it was let out; it is possibly the "Great Lodge" recorded as let by the Abbey in 1537.
  The moat around the house may have been L-shaped during this period, covering only the north and west sides of the property.  Access during this time was via a wooden bridge.  The surrounding parkland was fenced at some point between 1410 and 1529, probably when previously common land to the west was incorporated into the park.  A payment of five shillings was made annually by the Abbey to the parishes of Barton-under-Needwood and of Rolleston as compensation for the loss of pastureland.  The park was probably used as a hunting ground by the abbot and deer were first recorded there in 1532.  The park was rented out for herbage and pannage at a rate of £8 per year by 1536.
caption: The church of the Burton Abbey, pictured in 1661
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