Downside Abbey - The Abbey of St Gregory the Great at Downside, Somerset
Abbey Church of St Gregory The Great, Downside Abbey, Fosse Way
Grade I Listed
List Entry Number: 1058633
Details
In the entry for:
STRATTON-ON-THE-FOSSE FOSSE WAY ST 65 SE(west side) 13/187 Abbey Church of St Gregory The Great, Downside Abbey and School GV I The address shall be amended to read:
ST 65 SE FOSSE WAY 5/187 (west side) Abbey Church of St Gregory The Great, Downside Abbey
- I
and the description shall be amended to read
Abbey church and north cloister. Commenced 1873 and as yet unfinished (west front and two bays of nave are missing). Main building periods 1872-82, c.1890, 1901-5, 1911-12, c.1923-25, 1938. Architects in date order, A M Dunn and E J Hansom, Thomas Garner, F.A.Walters, Sir G.G.Scott. Interior fittings and furnishings by the principal architects and Sir J N Comper. Bath stone ashlar with red plain tile roofs, the east end chapels roofed very conspicuously in copper sheeting.
Abbey church consists of nave with blind aisles and gallery chapels to south over north cloisters, by Sir G G Scott 1922-25 incorporating temporary west front, in simplified early Perpendicular style. Transepts with chapels opened 1882 and base of tower 1884, by A Dunn and E Hansom in early English style; tower finished 1938 by Scott in Somerset Perpendicular. Choir 1902-05 by Thomas Garner in early Decorated style; east end, ambulatory and radiating chapels with large projecting Lady Chapel opened 1888 by Dunn and Hansom in a French C13 style. Of the earliest work by Dunn and Hansom the 2 bays transepts have a rose window to the north, south transept with tower on south side; tower with much emphasised doorway and with gabled canopy with figures; with Scott's addition it rises to about 166 ft, corner buttresses, pinnacles, 3 tiers of 2-light bell-chamber windows. Eight bay nave with triforium and clerestorey, pierced parapet, 2-light windows, rich tracery, west end (unfinished) with triple lancets. Chancel of 7 bays, with tall transomed clerestory windows, pierced parapets, flying buttresses, massive end pinnacles, 3-light east window. Chapels at east end with much emphasis on facetted roofs. Interior rib-vaulted in C13 French style; nave with tall Perpendicular arcades; triforium in Decorated style; richly fitted and furnished with much high quality work including altars, carvings, tombs, paintings and stained glass; canopied tomb of Cardinal Gasquet (d.1929) by Sir G G Scott, effigy by E Carter Preston. The Lady Chapel was decorated, glazed, paved and screened by Comper.
'The most splendid demonstration of the renaissance of Roman Catholicism in England' (Pevsner) it was built for a community of Benedictine monks, founded at St Gregory's monastery at Douai in Flanders in 1607, house re-established in England 1795, present estate purchased 1813.
References: Pevsner. Buildings of England, North Somerset and Bristol 1958 and for full description of church: James, Dom Augustine. The Story of Downside Abbey Church 1961. Fitzgerald-Lombard, Dom C.A guide to the Church of St Gregory the Great Downside Abbey, 1981.
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STRATTON-ON-THE-FOSSE CP FOSSE WAY (West side) ST65SE 13/187 Abbey Church of St. Gregory The Great, Downside Abbey and School -
GV I
Abbey Church, and north cloister. Work commenced 1872 and as yet unfinished, viz. west end of Abbey Church. For community of Benedictine monks, founded at St Gregory's Monastery at Douai in northern France, 1601; house re-established in England 1795, present estate purchased 1814. Bath and Doulting stones, lias; tile and copper sheeting roofs. Abbey Church consists of nave with blind aisles and gallery chapels to south over north cloister, by Sir G G Scott c1923-25 incorporating temporary west front, in simplified French Perpendicular style. Transepts with chapels and base of tower c1882, by A Dunn and C Hansom in rich Early English style; tower finished 1938 by Scott in Somerset Perpendicular. Chancel c1901-05 by Thomas Garner in Early Perpendicular style; east end, ambulatory and radiating chapels with large projecting Lady Chapel c1890 by Dunn and Hansom in French Perpendicular style. Of the earliest work by Dunn and Hansom the 2 bay transepts have a rose window to the north, south transept with tower on south side; tower with much emphasised door opening, gabled canopy with figures; with Scott's addition it rises to about 160 m, corner buttresses, pinnacles, 3 tiers of 2-light bell-chamber windows. Eight bay nave with triforium and clerestory, pierced parapet, 2-light windows, rich tracery, west end with triple lancets. Chancel of 7 bays, with tall transomed clerestory windows, pierced parapets, flying buttresses, massive end pinnacles, 3-light east window. Chapels at east end with much emphasis on facetted roofs. Interior rib-vaulted in C13 French style; nave with tall Perpendicular arcades; triforium in Decorated style; richly fitted and furnished with much high quality work including carvings, tombs, paintings and stained glass; tomb and recess by Sir Ninian Compter. (Pevsner, Buildings of England, North Somerset and Bristol, 1958; Fitzgerald-Lombard Dom C, A Guide to the Church of St Gregory the Great Downside Abbey, 1981).
Listing NGR: ST6550550832
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1058633
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Downside Abbey.
The Abbey of St Gregory the Great at Downside, commonly known as Downside Abbey, is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. One of its main apostolates is the Downside School, for the education of children aged eleven to eighteen. Alumni of the school are known as Old Gregorians.
Both the abbey and the school are located at Stratton-on-the-Fosse between Westfield and Shepton Mallet in Somerset, South West England.
Downside Abbey has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described the Abbey as "the most splendid demonstration of the renaissance of Roman Catholicism in England"
Foundation and development.
The community was founded in 1605 at Douai in Flanders, then part the Spanish Netherlands, under the patronage of St Gregory the Great, (who had sent the monk, St Augustine of Canterbury, as head of a mission to England in 597). The founder was St John Roberts, who became the first prior and established the new community with other English monks who had entered various monasteries within the Spanish Benedictine Congregation, notably the principal monastery at Valladolid. In 1611 Dom Philippe de Caverel, abbot of St. Vaast's Abbey at Arras, built and endowed a monastery for the community.
The Priory of St. Gregory was therefore the first English Benedictine house to renew conventual life after the Reformation. For nearly 200 years the monastery trained monks for the English mission and six of these men were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929. Two of them, Saints John Roberts and Ambrose Barlow, were among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
French troops invaded Flanders during the French Revolution. The monastic community was expelled by them, after a period of imprisonment, and in March 1795 the community was permitted to proceed to England. They settled for some 20 years as guests of Sir Edward Smythe at Acton Burnell, Shropshire, before finally settling at Mount Pleasant, Downside, in Somerset, in 1814.
The monastery was completed in 1876 and the abbey church in 1925, being raised to the rank of a minor basilica in 1935 by Pope Pius XI.
The building of Downside abbey church was begun in the 19th century, and ended with completion of the nave after World War I. The church houses the relics of St. Oliver Plunkett, archbishop of Armagh, Irish martyr, executed at Tyburn in 1681, who entrusted the disposal of his body to the care of a Benedictine monk of the English Benedictine Congregation. The church is one of only three in the United Kingdom to be designated a minor basilica by the Roman Catholic Church, the others being St. Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham and Corpus Christi Priory, Manchester.
The church is built in the Gothic Revival style, and is designed to rival in size the medieval cathedrals of England that were lost to the Catholic Church through the Reformation. The earliest part is the decorated transepts by Archibald Matthias Dunn and Edward Joseph Hansom, dating from 1882.[10] The choir is the work of Thomas Garner (who is buried there), dedicated in 1905. The nave by Giles Gilbert Scott (c. 1923-25) remains unfinished, with its western wall in crude Lias stone standing bare and undecorated.
The Lady chapel is acknowledged as one of the most complete and successful schemes of Sir Ninian Comper, with a reredos and altar furnishings incorporating medieval fragments and a reliquary containing the skull of St Thomas de Cantilupe. The tower, completed in 1938, at 166 feet (55 m), is the second highest in Somerset. The choir stalls are modeled on the stalls in Chester Cathedral.
The Abbey Cemetery, primarily a burial ground for the community, also contains two war graves of World War II, a Lieutenant of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and a Sub-Lieutenant of the Royal New Zealand Navy.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downside_ABBEY
Downside Abbey - The Abbey of St Gregory the Great at Downside, Somerset
Abbey Church of St Gregory The Great, Downside Abbey, Fosse Way
Grade I Listed
List Entry Number: 1058633
Details
In the entry for:
STRATTON-ON-THE-FOSSE FOSSE WAY ST 65 SE(west side) 13/187 Abbey Church of St Gregory The Great, Downside Abbey and School GV I The address shall be amended to read:
ST 65 SE FOSSE WAY 5/187 (west side) Abbey Church of St Gregory The Great, Downside Abbey
- I
and the description shall be amended to read
Abbey church and north cloister. Commenced 1873 and as yet unfinished (west front and two bays of nave are missing). Main building periods 1872-82, c.1890, 1901-5, 1911-12, c.1923-25, 1938. Architects in date order, A M Dunn and E J Hansom, Thomas Garner, F.A.Walters, Sir G.G.Scott. Interior fittings and furnishings by the principal architects and Sir J N Comper. Bath stone ashlar with red plain tile roofs, the east end chapels roofed very conspicuously in copper sheeting.
Abbey church consists of nave with blind aisles and gallery chapels to south over north cloisters, by Sir G G Scott 1922-25 incorporating temporary west front, in simplified early Perpendicular style. Transepts with chapels opened 1882 and base of tower 1884, by A Dunn and E Hansom in early English style; tower finished 1938 by Scott in Somerset Perpendicular. Choir 1902-05 by Thomas Garner in early Decorated style; east end, ambulatory and radiating chapels with large projecting Lady Chapel opened 1888 by Dunn and Hansom in a French C13 style. Of the earliest work by Dunn and Hansom the 2 bays transepts have a rose window to the north, south transept with tower on south side; tower with much emphasised doorway and with gabled canopy with figures; with Scott's addition it rises to about 166 ft, corner buttresses, pinnacles, 3 tiers of 2-light bell-chamber windows. Eight bay nave with triforium and clerestorey, pierced parapet, 2-light windows, rich tracery, west end (unfinished) with triple lancets. Chancel of 7 bays, with tall transomed clerestory windows, pierced parapets, flying buttresses, massive end pinnacles, 3-light east window. Chapels at east end with much emphasis on facetted roofs. Interior rib-vaulted in C13 French style; nave with tall Perpendicular arcades; triforium in Decorated style; richly fitted and furnished with much high quality work including altars, carvings, tombs, paintings and stained glass; canopied tomb of Cardinal Gasquet (d.1929) by Sir G G Scott, effigy by E Carter Preston. The Lady Chapel was decorated, glazed, paved and screened by Comper.
'The most splendid demonstration of the renaissance of Roman Catholicism in England' (Pevsner) it was built for a community of Benedictine monks, founded at St Gregory's monastery at Douai in Flanders in 1607, house re-established in England 1795, present estate purchased 1813.
References: Pevsner. Buildings of England, North Somerset and Bristol 1958 and for full description of church: James, Dom Augustine. The Story of Downside Abbey Church 1961. Fitzgerald-Lombard, Dom C.A guide to the Church of St Gregory the Great Downside Abbey, 1981.
------------------------------------
STRATTON-ON-THE-FOSSE CP FOSSE WAY (West side) ST65SE 13/187 Abbey Church of St. Gregory The Great, Downside Abbey and School -
GV I
Abbey Church, and north cloister. Work commenced 1872 and as yet unfinished, viz. west end of Abbey Church. For community of Benedictine monks, founded at St Gregory's Monastery at Douai in northern France, 1601; house re-established in England 1795, present estate purchased 1814. Bath and Doulting stones, lias; tile and copper sheeting roofs. Abbey Church consists of nave with blind aisles and gallery chapels to south over north cloister, by Sir G G Scott c1923-25 incorporating temporary west front, in simplified French Perpendicular style. Transepts with chapels and base of tower c1882, by A Dunn and C Hansom in rich Early English style; tower finished 1938 by Scott in Somerset Perpendicular. Chancel c1901-05 by Thomas Garner in Early Perpendicular style; east end, ambulatory and radiating chapels with large projecting Lady Chapel c1890 by Dunn and Hansom in French Perpendicular style. Of the earliest work by Dunn and Hansom the 2 bay transepts have a rose window to the north, south transept with tower on south side; tower with much emphasised door opening, gabled canopy with figures; with Scott's addition it rises to about 160 m, corner buttresses, pinnacles, 3 tiers of 2-light bell-chamber windows. Eight bay nave with triforium and clerestory, pierced parapet, 2-light windows, rich tracery, west end with triple lancets. Chancel of 7 bays, with tall transomed clerestory windows, pierced parapets, flying buttresses, massive end pinnacles, 3-light east window. Chapels at east end with much emphasis on facetted roofs. Interior rib-vaulted in C13 French style; nave with tall Perpendicular arcades; triforium in Decorated style; richly fitted and furnished with much high quality work including carvings, tombs, paintings and stained glass; tomb and recess by Sir Ninian Compter. (Pevsner, Buildings of England, North Somerset and Bristol, 1958; Fitzgerald-Lombard Dom C, A Guide to the Church of St Gregory the Great Downside Abbey, 1981).
Listing NGR: ST6550550832
historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1058633
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Downside Abbey.
The Abbey of St Gregory the Great at Downside, commonly known as Downside Abbey, is a Benedictine monastery in England and the senior community of the English Benedictine Congregation. One of its main apostolates is the Downside School, for the education of children aged eleven to eighteen. Alumni of the school are known as Old Gregorians.
Both the abbey and the school are located at Stratton-on-the-Fosse between Westfield and Shepton Mallet in Somerset, South West England.
Downside Abbey has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building. Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described the Abbey as "the most splendid demonstration of the renaissance of Roman Catholicism in England"
Foundation and development.
The community was founded in 1605 at Douai in Flanders, then part the Spanish Netherlands, under the patronage of St Gregory the Great, (who had sent the monk, St Augustine of Canterbury, as head of a mission to England in 597). The founder was St John Roberts, who became the first prior and established the new community with other English monks who had entered various monasteries within the Spanish Benedictine Congregation, notably the principal monastery at Valladolid. In 1611 Dom Philippe de Caverel, abbot of St. Vaast's Abbey at Arras, built and endowed a monastery for the community.
The Priory of St. Gregory was therefore the first English Benedictine house to renew conventual life after the Reformation. For nearly 200 years the monastery trained monks for the English mission and six of these men were beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929. Two of them, Saints John Roberts and Ambrose Barlow, were among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales canonized by Pope Paul VI in 1970.
French troops invaded Flanders during the French Revolution. The monastic community was expelled by them, after a period of imprisonment, and in March 1795 the community was permitted to proceed to England. They settled for some 20 years as guests of Sir Edward Smythe at Acton Burnell, Shropshire, before finally settling at Mount Pleasant, Downside, in Somerset, in 1814.
The monastery was completed in 1876 and the abbey church in 1925, being raised to the rank of a minor basilica in 1935 by Pope Pius XI.
The building of Downside abbey church was begun in the 19th century, and ended with completion of the nave after World War I. The church houses the relics of St. Oliver Plunkett, archbishop of Armagh, Irish martyr, executed at Tyburn in 1681, who entrusted the disposal of his body to the care of a Benedictine monk of the English Benedictine Congregation. The church is one of only three in the United Kingdom to be designated a minor basilica by the Roman Catholic Church, the others being St. Chad's Cathedral in Birmingham and Corpus Christi Priory, Manchester.
The church is built in the Gothic Revival style, and is designed to rival in size the medieval cathedrals of England that were lost to the Catholic Church through the Reformation. The earliest part is the decorated transepts by Archibald Matthias Dunn and Edward Joseph Hansom, dating from 1882.[10] The choir is the work of Thomas Garner (who is buried there), dedicated in 1905. The nave by Giles Gilbert Scott (c. 1923-25) remains unfinished, with its western wall in crude Lias stone standing bare and undecorated.
The Lady chapel is acknowledged as one of the most complete and successful schemes of Sir Ninian Comper, with a reredos and altar furnishings incorporating medieval fragments and a reliquary containing the skull of St Thomas de Cantilupe. The tower, completed in 1938, at 166 feet (55 m), is the second highest in Somerset. The choir stalls are modeled on the stalls in Chester Cathedral.
The Abbey Cemetery, primarily a burial ground for the community, also contains two war graves of World War II, a Lieutenant of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry and a Sub-Lieutenant of the Royal New Zealand Navy.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downside_ABBEY