The ancient religious house at Quarr

By coincidence, the first abbey at Quarr also had a French connection. Its founder, Baldwin de Redvers, brought monks from Savigny Abbey in Normandy in 1131 to start the colony. The abbey was consecrated in 1150. The construction phase appears to have been a long one because a licence to surround the abbey with walls was given in 1340 and this work was still in progress in 1366.

The location on the north shore was well chosen. To the west is a river and a port and to the east a stone quarry, from which the abbey takes its name. Building materials did not have to travel any distance.

The plan of the abbey, drawn from a 19th century excavation, is a conventional Cistercian arrangement, except for building the church on the south side. The church had a total length of 160 feet and a width of 110 feet, making it an impressive building. Other than this, little can be gleaned about its appearance since it was immediately dismantled after dissolution in 1536. The quarried and dressed stone was quite hard and therefore worth salvaging. A lot of the stone from the former abbey was used to build two defensive blockhouses at East and West Cowes in 1539.

The abbey was a prosperous one and by 1536 held the manors of Quarr, Newnham, Arreton, Staplehurst, Sheat, Shaldcomb, Newport, Comley, Fowewod cum Forewey, Compton, Haseley, Lovecombe, Hamstede, Roughbarowe, Bydeborough, Charke in Rowner, together with various properties in many other places in southern Hampshire. The Vlor Ecclesiasticus of 1535 put a value of £134 3s 11d. on the abbey.

It was therefore a tempting property and despite the good report of the commissioners the house was nevertheless dissolved. Sir Thomas Wriothesley, later the 1st Earl of Southampton, acquired all the Hampshire manorial rights on February 17th 1537 and then scooped up the Devonshire properties in November of that year. The abbey itself was leased to John Mill of Southampton in March 1537 for 21 years but in 1544 John and George Mill acquired a grant of the property. It continued in private ownership until it was sold in 1907 to the Benedictine monks of Solesme.

Because so much of the abbey was dismantled in the 16th century and employed elsewhere very little remains of the original abbey. Even some of the foundations were removed. However, there are some walls and ruins remaining to remind us of its medieval heritage.

Quarr Abbey

A dull January day took me on the ferry from Southampton across to Cowes and from there by bus to a piece of undeveloped countryside on the north of the island. The bus stops on the road' literally in the middle of nowhere. From there it was a short walk up the drive.

Quarr Abbey has many echoes down the centuries. It is now a functioning 20th century Benedictine Monastery. This was built on to a 19th century mansion, also called Quarr Abbey. Just to the east are the ruins of the ancient Quarr Abbey, originally built in the 12th century and dissolved in the 16th century. In its day it was a Cistercian house. It is a curiosity that two different orders should inhabit the same land at different periods of history but that helps to make this a more interesting story.

The modern history goes back to 1901 when a group of Benedictine monks exiled themselves from their native France because the French government of the day were making life difficult for them. French monasteries were first dissolved in 1790 and had their assets seized by the revolutionary government. They were probably worse treated than the monasteries were in the 1530s by Henry VIII's regime in England. Nevertheless they recovered only to encounter further punitive legislation later in the 19th century.
The monks did indeed run into more troubles, this was due to the political climate about in France which had been prevalent for a number of years before and culminated with a government anti-clérical,Léon Gambetta a future Prime Minister (he was only in power for three months ) is quoted as saying "le cléricalisme voila l'ennemi!" In 1880 his successor Jules Ferry decided to get rid of religious congregations and reduce the influence of the church in universities. The monks of Solemnes, who were later to come to the Isle of Wight, were expelled on the 6th of November of that year. They found shelter where they could in local houses and manors with sympathisers. They attempted over the next twenty years to return but in spite of some further building work their stay was always precarious.
Finally in 1901 Prime Minister Émile Combes's government brought in Law Anticongréganistes which quite simply forbade religious communities and  led to the Great Exile. They left for countries such as Belgium, Italy, Spain, England, the Channel Islands and South America and the USA. It is somewhat ironic that England was seen as a safe haven by 1901.

The monks first established themselves at Appuldurcombe  House near Ventnor, but a few years later, when their lease ran out, they were able to purchase Quarr Abbey in 1907. Quarr Abbey by this time was a large Victorian Mansion facing the north shore of the island. Osborne House was a neighbour. The monks at first used the house for accommodation and brought their wooden church from the south of the island; of course it was taken apart on the older site and re-assembled at Quarr.

Within a few years money was made available for new buildings, essentially the devotional part of the monastery, built on the south side of the Victorian mansion. The architect was himself a monk, Dom Paul Beliot, himself a trained architect, undertook the design and supervised construction.

The results are impressive and at the time was probably daring. Nineteenth century architects tended to build with brick but face with stone to give a sense of timelessness and continuity with the past. Beliot chose to make a virtue of the brick and used it in a decorative as well as structural medium. The colours of the chosen brick, which apparently came from Belgium, emanate a very rich and warm feeling.

The interior is more austere. the chapel is high and wide and could accommodate many. In reality there are only 8 monks living there so there is no opportunity to do other than contemplate God in the chapel.

Gradually, English monks began to replace the French. The guide for the day, and seemingly the point of contact with the outside world, is Father Luke Bell and English now seems to be the everyday language of the institution. The monastery probably subsists on donations from benefactors and the proceeds of its various activities - the tea rooms, visitors, guests who are able to stay at the monastery and retreats.

The monks keep pigs, aparently to keep  their hand in doing useful practical work. the pigs may be the noisiest animals at this peaceful site.