Abbotskerswell Priory, on the outskirts of the village of

Abbotskerswell Abbotskerswell is a village and civil parish in the English county of Devon. The village is in the north part of the parish and is located two miles (3 km) south of the town of Newton Abbot, from the seaside resort of Torquay and from th ...

, near

Newton Abbot Newton Abbot is a market town and civil parish on the River Teign in the Teignbridge District of Devon, England. Its 2011 population of 24,029 was estimated to reach 26,655 in 2019. It grew rapidly in the Victorian era as the home of the Sou ...

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, England, was the home of a community of Augustinian nuns from 1861 until 1983. It has now been converted into apartments for retirees.

Abbotsleigh House

Abbotsleigh HouseWatts, Geoffrey E. St. Augustine’s Priory: a Short History of the Priory and Other Buildings on the Site, 1998 (Record No. 56412 - West Country Studies Library, Exeter) was built on high ground on the outskirts of

during 1847-48. The land had formerly belonged to the Abbot of

Sherborne Sherborne is a market town and civil parish in north west Dorset, in South West England. It is sited on the River Yeo, on the edge of the Blackmore Vale, east of Yeovil. The parish includes the hamlets of Nether Coombe and Lower Clatcombe. T ...

. The house, with about of land, was purchased by the Catholic Church in February 1860, and became the hub around which the new Priory of St. Augustine was built. During those early days it was sometimes known as Abbots Leigh Priory.

Joseph Hansom Joseph Aloysius Hansom (26 October 1803 – 29 June 1882) was a British architect working principally in the Gothic Revival style. He invented the Hansom cab and founded the eminent architectural journal, '' The Builder'', in 1843. Career ...

was appointed to prepare plans for buildings to accommodate 50 nuns. Hansom had recently completed work on

Plymouth Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Mary and Saint Boniface in Plymouth, England, is the seat of the Bishop of Plymouth and mother church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Plymouth, which covers the counties of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset. The Diocese ...

, but is probably better known as the designer of

Hansom Cab The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn carriage designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, ...

s. His ground plan for the whole development is still available for inspection at the Priory and, although later details were completed by

Benjamin Bucknall Benjamin Bucknall (1833 – 16 November 1895) was an English architect of the Gothic Revival in South West England and South Wales, and then of neo-Moorish architecture in Algeria. His most noted works include the uncompleted Woodchester Mans ...

, the general layout is as he originally planned it. The convent wing was completed by the autumn of 1861 and the new Church of the Holy Ghost was completed in autumn 1863. The east, or guest, wing and the north services wing were added during the next 20 years.

The nuns

In 1794 a group of English nuns living in St. Monica's convent in

Louvain Leuven (, ) or Louvain (, , ; german: link=no, Löwen ) is the capital and largest city of the province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipality itself comprises the historic c ...

, Belgium, was driven back to England by the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

. They lived in Amesbury, Wiltshire, for five years but in 1800 they moved on to Spetisbury in Dorset. Here they created a boarding school for about 40 young ladies at what became known as St. Monica's Priory. In 1861 they found their final home in Abbotskerswell at the instigation of the Bishop of Plymouth, William Vaughan. Their experiences during the revolution may explain why Hansom was instructed to build two elaborate escape tunnels at the priory. At Abbotskerswell Priory the nuns lived as an

enclosed order Enclosed religious orders or ''cloistered clergy'' are religious orders whose members strictly separate themselves from the affairs of the external world. In the Catholic Church, enclosure is regulated by the code of canon law, either the Lat ...

and had very little communication with the village until about 1952. As is traditional in monasteries of this kind, local people were admitted to worship in a small side chapel which was so arranged that they could follow services being conducted in the church, but could not see the nuns. Village residents recall that during the 1960s the nuns were given more freedom to associate and to sell produce such as honey and eggs from their small farm. The particular work of the community was reparation for the sins of mankind. They prayed for the

conversion Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

of sinners and the spread of the faith, especially in England. The

postulant A postulant (from la, postulare, to ask) was originally one who makes a request or demand; hence, a candidate. The use of the term is now generally restricted to those asking for admission into a Christian monastery or a religious order for the p ...

s and

novice A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession A profession is a field of work that has ...

s were trained in singing and reciting the Divine Office. Besides taking part in the domestic work of the community they were trained in various handicrafts according to their gifts and talents. Their time was largely devoted to religious exercises, daily Mass and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and the Divine Office in Choir, the sisters each taking their appointed watch, day and night.Rhodes, A.J., Newton Abbot – Its History and Development, 1905 (Newton Abbot Local History Library, Class 942.35) Among the relics which were preserved at the Priory was the

hair shirt A cilice , also known as a sackcloth, was originally a garment or undergarment made of coarse cloth or animal hair (a hairshirt) worn close to the skin. It is used by members of various Christian traditions (including the Catholic, Lutheran, A ...

Sir Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VIII as Lord ...

, presented for safe keeping by Margaret Clements (1508–1570), his adopted daughter.Catholic Encyclopaedia http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14689c.htm It is now in the custody of

Buckfast Abbey Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfast, near Buckfastleigh, Devon, England. Buckfast first became home to an abbey in 1018. The first Benedictine abbey was followed by a Savignac (later Cistercian) abbey cons ...

, near Buckfastleigh in Devon.

Redevelopment

By the 1960s the buildings had started to fall into disrepair and the number of nuns slowly declined, the last three departing in March 1983. In 1985 a local company, Clennon Developments, purchased the property to develop as a retirement complex and the project was launched in April 1987. A second block, named Priory Court, was completed by the middle of 1991 and the small farmhouse and various outbuildings adjacent to Priory Road were converted into seven cottages by 1997, becoming known as Priory Yard. In 2011 the priory was purchased by Retirement Villages Ltd who continue to run it as a retirement complex.

References

{{Coord, 50.51425, -3.60220, region:GB_type:landmark, display=title Monasteries in Devon 1861 establishments in England 1983 disestablishments in England 19th-century Christian monasteries Augustinian nunneries in England 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom