Ship of Fools: Prinknash Abbey, Cranham, England

The Mystery Worshipper

Ship of Fools: Prinknash Abbey, Cranham, England

Altar party vanishes in clouds of incense as the Blessed Mother puts on her wellies

Read the full Mystery Worshipper report here

Box Pew

Interesting - thanks for your report.

Kneeling on the floor sounds a bit harsh on the knees !

I gather that the new (now abandoned, former) monastery is not a listed building, as you suspect. Indeed a Certificate of Immunity from Listing was granted, for five years - a legal protection against it being listed. This probably means the monks intend to demolish it, or to sell it to someone else who will.

Urganda

Interesting. There is a lot of back-history about that building. I don't know most of it but the name Goodhart-Rendell is bandied about. I am keen to know more about the whole of Prinknash. Perhaps I'll send my calling card by post.

Amanda B Reckondwyth

Perhaps I should write something about "How to leave your MW Calling Card if there's no collection." In similar circumstances, I've (1) simply left it in the seat; (2) left it on a table in the narthex; (3) stuffed it into the coin slot on a candle rack; (4) handed it to the bishop (who thought it was a check and said, “I’ll let my deacon handle this” and handed it over to the deacon); (5) gave it to an inquisitive parishioner, who said he’d pass it on to the abbot of the monastery in question; (6) handed it directly to the priest, asking “Don’t look at this until later”; (7) stuffed it into the worship leader’s Bible when he wasn’t looking.

Bishops Finger

Very inventive, Miss Amanda!

H S Goodhart-Rendel began work on Prinknash, but it was completed after his death by F G Broadbent.

I won't clutter up this post with links, but Google (and Wikipedia) will provide lots of information regarding both architects, and their works, with multifarious illustrations.

Bishops Finger

Incidentally, it does seem a shame that such a dramatic building as Prinknash Abbey should be threatened with demolition, but maybe hopes for the future were outstripped by cold reality...

I wonder what went wrong, IYSWIM?

Urganda

Do you mean they died?

Bishops Finger

Who - the architects, or the monks?


No - my point was that a great deal of time, money, and effort, was put into the building of the Abbey, and it appears to have been somewhat wasted.

Man proposeth, God disposeth, perhaps?

Amanda B Reckondwyth

Vanity of vanities . . . . The Benedictines surprise me.

Bishops Finger

In the sense that one would expect them to be rather more modest?

I guess that when the Abbey was being planned, and built, there were high hopes that it would be a major - and lasting - contribution to the life of the church in this country.

Blahblah

I believe that there has been a drop in the number of monks at Prinknash, I'm not sure why.

They used to be involved in the pottery, I'm not sure whether they do that any more.

Urganda

No. The pottery is defunct. They still make and sell incense. The kitchen garden, which has a wonderful walled site, is a recent project. The shop and cafe do well. The auction rooms appear to flourish. I did once (5-10 years ago) propose using the abandoned monastery to house ex-prisoners but nothing came of this. There is now a notice saying Police dogs are trained there.

Blahblah

Oh right. I realise it must be decades since I went, I used to sometimes cycle up Birdlip hill to visit.

Bishops Finger

I understand there's been a general drop in monastic vocations across pretty well all Orders in the past couple of generations.

Still, it sounds as if Prinknash are making the best of their situation, and doing what they do do, well.

Shame about the abandoned monastery, though.

Doone

I attended a junior school in Bristol and we had a trip there in about 1960 to see the pottery works. The boys also had a tour round the monastery, but us girls had to wait outside! My, we had exciting school outings in those far off days 😉!

Urganda

I think it is a very great shame about the abandoned monastery. In fact I am only holding on to my polite detachment with difficulty. How many homeless do we have? I do admire and enjoy what they do in the manor house, but that is a blot.

Blahblah

In fairness, Cranham is not really close enough to anywhere to be a useful contribution to tackling homelessness. There might be the occasional bus to Cirencester or Cheltenham but I'm not sure they'd even pass close by if they exist.

Bishops Finger

Points taken. Was there not a proposal, some years ago, to demolish the abandoned monastery, and replace it with new luxury flats?

Baptist Trainfan

Yes: https://tinyurl.com/vzqb4xk

Urganda

Thanks. I see they must have sold it (as they said they had) about the time of my proposal.

Bishops Finger

The plans to build luxury mansions (not flats - my mistake) were rejected 3 years ago, so the building must have deteriorated even further since then.

BTW, I see that back in the 30s there were 70 monks...

A new hotel? Affordable homes for local people? Hopefully, it won't end up in the same state as St Peter's Seminary, near Glasgow:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Peter%27s_Seminary,_Cardross#Post-seminary

Urganda

And yet there's something exciting about dereliction - a reminder that everything changes. Though equally hideous, St Peter's Seminary may be more 'important' architecturally. Prinknash still looks habitable.

Box Pew

I am generally a Goodhart-Rendell fan, but Prinknash monastery building really was not his finest hour - unlike, Holy Trinity Dockhead, Bermondsey, which might be. As noted above it was completed posthumously by others - and had far too tight a budget for the ambitious scale.

Bishops Finger

Yes, not his finest work, by any means.

The St Peter's Seminary ruins are amazingly impressive in their sheer hideousness, but I'm not sure I'd want to see Prinknash reduced to that state. Mind you, unless something is done with it, it will eventually become even more of a blot on the landscape!

Bishops Finger

BTW, I've just found this little video tour, which gives some idea of the lovely setting, and shows that the abandoned buildings don't look too bad - yet!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=3MNSEzJCO64

Gee D

How's it pronounced pleased? I assume along the lines of spinach.

Blahblah

Gee D wrote: »

How's it pronounced pleased? I assume along the lines of spinach.

Pring-ish

Blahblah

Even that's not quite correct. The local accent in that part of Gloucestershire means placenames in particular sound nothing like the way they look.

Blahblah

Ha, now I've said that I can't think of any others..

Bishops Finger

'Prinnidge' is another version (which sort of rhymes with spinach).

Amanda B Reckondwyth

Urganda did say "Prinnish" in the Neighborhood paragraph of the report.

Blahblah

Cran-am
Wit-cum

Bishops Finger wrote: »

'Prinnidge' is another version (which sort of rhymes with spinach).

Nope, there must be something wrong with me, but I can't get it to sound like spinach

Bishops Finger

Try saying 'spinnidge' - which is how 'spinach' is sometimes pronounced.

I think...

Blahblah

Oh right. I've not heard Pricknash pronounced without an -ish. -idg isn't a Gloucestershire sound as far as I know, and I was brought up there.

Gamma Gamaliel

Well, I grew up over the border in South Wales and to my ears Prinknash in a Gloucestershire accent would be something like 'Pri-nash' or 'Pri-nish.'

Not sure about 'idge' not being a Gloucestershire sound but I'll take the word of someone who grew up there.

There's a strange almost hybrid Welsh border/Gloucestershire accent in the western reaches of the Forest of Dean, but over Birdlip way I'd have them sounding like Laurie Lee.

Blahblah

Well as the crow flies, Slad isn't far but in practice it is in an isolated valley. I don't think many people even in other places around Stroud sound like Laurie Lee.

I've been trying to think of an -idge, the closest I can think is Slimbridge and Cambridge, Glos. Of course that's because of the -bridge ending.

Forest of Dean accent isn't really much like the Cotwold accent. But whether they were much more similar in the past, I couldn't say.

Blahblah

Hum, it looks like I've missed out on a lot of recent Prinknash news and gossip. The last few years sound quite eventful.

Gee D

Thank you all, not likely to be at the top of our next-time-round list, but who knows? We pronounce the vegetable as spinnitch.

Gamma Gamaliel

Blahblah wrote: »

Well as the crow flies, Slad isn't far but in practice it is in an isolated valley. I don't think many people even in other places around Stroud sound like Laurie Lee.

I've been trying to think of an -idge, the closest I can think is Slimbridge and Cambridge, Glos. Of course that's because of the -bridge ending.

Forest of Dean accent isn't really much like the Cotwold accent. But whether they were much more similar in the past, I couldn't say.

Ok, I was just making a general observation about the Forest of Dean accent rather than the Cotswolds accents ...

I'm more familiar with Gloucester itself and the way people speak around Monmouth and Ross. The Cotswolds were always a bit further away.

Bristol was the place we had most dealings with mind ... running away from the Colston Hall during the encores to catch the last train back to Newport with seconds to spare and then a long walk home along the canal bank.

Doone

Ah, gigs at the Colston Hall - takes me back (a long way!).

Urganda

Thanks for the video. Doesn't it make anyone else think this empty building could have been housing people for the last 10 years, even if it was going to be pulled down? The life expectation of a Council Estate is 10 years.

Bishops Finger

Yes, I admit that the thought did strike me - I didn't realise (until I saw that video) quite what the building looked like.

But...as others have said, it's in the wrong place for that sort of use - no infrastructure to support the other needs of the homeless, though such infrastructure could be provided, at a price.

Urganda

Where there isn't a will there isn't a way.

Amanda B Reckondwyth

Pity we aren't using sigs any more as on the old Board. That deserves to be mounted in a gold frame and displayed above the door of every church.