St Hugh's Charterhouse, Parkminster, is the only post-
Reformation Carthusian monastery in the
United Kingdom. It is located in the parish of
Cowfold,
West Sussex,
England. It is a
Grade II* listed
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
building.
History
The monastery was founded in 1873, when the property formerly known as Picknoll was acquired for its construction in order to accommodate two houses of French Carthusians in exile. Building took place between 1876 and 1883 to designs by a French architect, Clovis Normand, who had at his disposal a generous budget. The number of monks has varied: 22 in 1883, 43 in 1932, 22 in 1984, and there were 27 monks as of January 2021.
The buildings are in a French
Gothic Revival
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
style although
Pevsner's judgement was that 'the plan is magnificent and can only be properly seen from the air'. The church has relics of Saint
Hugh of Lincoln,
Saint Boniface
Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictines, Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant ...
and the
Virgin Mary; and an unusually tall spire. It stands in the centre of buildings including a library with a collection of rare books and manuscripts and a
chapter house
A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole communi ...
decorated with images of the martyrdom of the monks' predecessors.
The Great Cloister, about long, one of the longest in the world, connects the 34 hermitages to the church and the other buildings, embracing four acres of orchards and the monastic burial ground.
[Christopher Martin, ''A Glimpse of Heaven: Catholic churches of England and Wales'', English Heritage, Swindon, 2006, pp 159-160] The total length of the cloisters is 1,012 m.
See also
*
List of Carthusian monasteries
This is a list of Carthusian monasteries, or charterhouses, containing both extant and dissolved Monastery, monasteries of the Carthusians (also known as the Order of Saint Bruno) for monks and nuns, arranged by location under their present count ...
*
List of monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII of England
These monasteries were dissolved by King Henry VIII of England in the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The list is by no means exhaustive, since over 800 religious houses existed before the Reformation, and virtually every town, of any size, had ...
*
List of monastic houses in England
*
List of places of worship in Horsham District
There are more than 110 current and former churches and other places of worship in the district of Horsham, one of seven local government districts in the English county of West Sussex. The town of Horsham, the district's administrative cen ...
References
Further reading
*
Robin Bruce Lockhart
Robert Norman Bruce Lockhart (13 April 1920 – 20 February 2008), known as Robin, was a British journalist, stock broker, and author.
Biography
Bruce Lockhart was the only son of R. H. Bruce Lockhart, a British diplomat, secret agent, journalis ...
, ''Half-way to Heaven: The Hidden Life of the Sublime Carthusians'' (London: Thames Methuen, 1985)
*
Nancy Klein Maguire
Nancy may refer to:
Places France
* Nancy, France, a city in the northeastern French department of Meurthe-et-Moselle and formerly the capital of the duchy of Lorraine
** Arrondissement of Nancy, surrounding and including the city of Nancy
...
, ''An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order'' (roman à clef, = novel based on real-life stories) (New York: PublicAffairs Books 2006, a division of Perseus Publishing, ISBN hardback , paperback 978-1-58648-432-3)
External sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cowford, Saint Hugh
Carthusian monasteries in England
Monasteries in West Sussex
1873 establishments in England
19th-century Christian monasteries
Grade II* listed buildings in West Sussex
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1886
Grade II* listed Roman Catholic churches in England
Grade II* listed monasteries
19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom