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3. 100 YEARS AT WOOLHAMPTON AS SEEN FROM THE PAGES OF THE DOUAI MAGAZINE

Beginning

THE first issue of The Douai Magazine to concern itself with Woolhampton is no 29 of vol. XXIX dated April 1904. From this we learn that the Bishop of Portsmouth had visited Douai on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception 1902, and in March 1903 had invited the monks to Woolhampton. The combined schools, St Mary’s College and Douai School, re-opened on September 7, 1903 with 109 pupils. The magazine quotes the description given in The Tablet of the celebration on September 17, when the Bishop of Portsmouth sang High Mass and the brief was read formally re-establishing the community at Woolhampton. At the lunch after Mass, Abbot Lawrence Larkin eulogised the generosity of the bishop and dwelt on the fact that the coming of the Benedictines was welcomed by the clergy of the diocese.

However that view does not appear to have been shared by all, for in the Spring 1943 edition of The Douai Magazine another opinion appears. Canon Kernan in his appreciation of the late Frank Derham a lay master, who had been employed at St Mary’s and continued at the new Douai School, wrote “When it was ascertained that Old Woolhampton was to be handed over to the Benedictines, we held a meeting-i.e. the masters - and decided to approach the Bishop of the Diocese to see if we could ward off the blow. Derham was the only layman present and I shall never forget his eagerness to retain the School which as he said ‘was a going concern’ and doing good work. He even went so far as to assert his willingness to forgo his salary or part of it, until such time as we were fully on our feet. We thought we could carry on as a diocesan college. We went to the Bishop, but found it was too late, ‘Why did you not come before?’ said His Lordship.”

Pupils in the school also saw things differently. A past pupil of St Mary’s who signed himself J.C, wrote in the March 1928 edition, “To us bigger boys it was a real blow. We loved the place and had a genuine affection for our masters, although we would have indignantly denied either charge had we been accused of it. ... Concerning the remainder of 1903 I will say but little. It was a difficult time for everyone and the wonder is that it went off as well as it did. The youngsters of both schools soon shook down into place and more or less adjusted themselves to the new conditions, but for the senior boys of both schools it was more difficult. On the one hand you had the Douai contingent, who started with the initial advantage of having known the staff for many years, and who arrived with the fixed idea of maintaining every possible tradition and custom of Old Douai. On the other hand you had the Woolhampton boys in their old familiar home, under new management, new rules and new masters, but just as determined to carry on with the tradition and customs of past years! ... many a difficult situation was saved by the tact and good humour of Ignatius Mooney, now the Prior. ... I must confess that the experiment was more successful than is usually the case. I don’t mean to say that it came off, it didn’t; but things went off reasonably well.” In the Autumn 1975 number, Fr Geoffrey Scott (now Abbot) summed the situation up: “it was difficult enough to stop both sides warring with each other and to achieve a synthesis by the surrender of the respective traditions”.

To stay or to move

Abbot Kelly, who had been actively involved, said in a speech quoted in the Autumn 1928 issue that the community took over St Mary’s on a seven year lease with the option of purchase. Two or three monks entered in possession as soon as Woolhampton School broke up in July 1903. During the holidays they worked to make a school already cramped for 60 boys ready to take 60 more plus the priests of the community; the juniors had to be quartered at Malvern for several years. It was a tight fit. The community had to be divided into three sections living in different parts of the buildings. There was no space for the monks’ recreation so the Community bounds were the road as far as the bottom of Cod’s Hill where the road forks.

The sanitary arrangements were extremely primitive: there were only five baths!

The first Abbot of Douai, Lawrence Larkin, became a victim of the expulsion, and resigned on December 23, 1903, although this was not announced till January 22, 1904. In a letter published in The Douai Magazine he wrote: “The unprecedented strain during the crisis of the last three years has naturally told upon my health and nerve and spirit; and I feel, and I have felt for some time past, that the new situation necessitated a new superior.”

The election of the second abbot was held on February 10, 1904; there were sixty four electors present and Ambrose Bamford OSB was elected on the sixth scrutiny. He ‘only with utmost reluctance and on the urgent entreaties of others, at last consented to take upon himself the weighty charge which had fallen to his lot.’ At the time of his election he was rector of Frizington, but he had for many years been cellarer of the community in France.

Many of the community regarded the expulsion from France as but a temporary phase and expected to return fairly soon; others realised it was permanent but had no wish to stay at Woolhampton. Abbot Bamford and Prior Edmund Kelly visited many alternative sites including Prior Park near Bath, and Holme Eden near Carlisle. Despite the strongest attempts by President Aidan Gasquet OSB to compel him to remain in office Abbot Bamford, who had never been blessed, resigned in June 1905, and on July 25 Stanislaus Taylor, Prior of Malvern, was elected. In his obituary in the Spring 1934 issue we read:

“After the Council of Seniors had decided that a move (away from Woolhampton) ought to be made, the question was put to Conventual Chapter ... not more than six of the sixty fathers present were found to favour the developing of Woolhampton ... the abbot was one of the six. He sought advice from Bishop O’Neill who ‘was convinced a further move would have disastrous results; the Community could not survive it’. So Abbot Taylor resolved to stay at Woolhampton. During the vacation he worked as he had probably never worked before: the house was cleaned and painted throughout, the many necessary repairs were done, and outside, the beautiful gardens which remain still as a memorial to his zeal and artistic taste were begun, to be later extended. The transformation, wonderful in so brief a period, did much to resign the returning brethren to their intended home.

In a year or two the Abbot won his way into the good graces of the local landowners and tenants, and was thus able to secure a piece of land at the back of the abbey and to purchase the Park which he later laid out and brought to the level of beauty so admired by all who see it. The problem of extension was thus swiftly solved, while the unsuitability of such contemplated spots as Prior Park and Carlisle soon became obvious to all. The Familia were won over. ... In sober truth, Stanislaus Taylor may be looked to as the real founder of Douai at Woolhampton, and that is without doubt his greatest claim to remembrance in the annals of her history.”

Development

Land was gradually acquired: the Park, which became available though the death of the owner of the Woolhampton Estate, and a strip sold by Sir William Mount of Wasing, running the full length of the property next to the buildings, were the deciding factors in our staying at Woolhampton. The first construction was the desperately needed lavatory block. Abbot Taylor laid out the Park as a sports field, (he had resisted a plan to build a monastery there cf. Geoffrey Scott Autumn 1975) Adrian Coughlan laid out the cricket pitch and built the laymasters’ house (Douai Lodge) when he was Headmaster. Abbot Taylor also installed the Pipet panels depicting the life of St Benedict, the alabaster altar as memorial to Bishop O’Neill and two side altars, which were placed temporarily in St Mary’s Church: they were intended for the future Abbey Church to be designed in the same style.

After the May 1907 edition of The Douai Magazine, publication came to an abrupt halt. The explanation appears to have been twofold, cash flow, and lack of personnel. No one had been found willing to take on the task of secretary, so this was being done by the editor, Cuthbert Doyle OSB, who had been in the post since 1902, but he was parish priest of Alcester. It was not until January 1920 that the magazine re-appeared in a smaller format, and called new series vol.1 no.1 under the editorship of Stephen Marron OSB. So there is no contemporary account of events between 1907 and 1920.

Monastery Development

Abbot Kelly’s 1928 speech to the Douai Society informs us that the refectory, monastery and kitchens were built between 1914 and 1916, during the abbacy of David Hurley, whose obituary in the Spring 1941 issue says: “it owes its several defects, notably its instability, to his astringent economic policy, surprising in a man of cultured taste”. Abbot Hurley had relied on the initiative and imagination of two of his councillors, Frs Bede Ryan and Boniface Mackinlay; the cloister was largely the brainchild of the latter, reports Fr Geoffrey Scott in the Autumn 1975 issue. These buildings enabled the monks to live in a monastery quite separate from the school for the first time. Previously they had been scattered in three different parts of the school.

In 1919 a parcel of eight acres had been bought to prevent cottages being built upon it, which Abbot Kelly himself used for the next stages of building: the blocks completed in 1925 to house the noviciate. He also bought two fields of eighteen acres to utilise for a new sewage plant. Then in 1926 he bought Ferrises having delayed so as to avoid paying too much. In twenty-five years our land had grown from six to about a hundred acres.

Abbey Church

Abbot Kelly’s crowning triumph was the laying of the foundation stone of the Abbey Church on June 18, at 4pm, twenty-five years to the hour after the arrival from Douai of the main party of community and pupils from France. The architect was Arnold Crush, a pupil of Edmund Lutyens and Giles Gilbert Scott.

Abbot Kelly’s achievements were summed up in the Autumn 1940 edition, which carried his obituary following his death on July 25. Edmund Kelly had been either Prior or Procurator, and sometimes both, from before the expulsion from France until his election in 1921. “Abbots came and went but the Prior remained. Perhaps his greatest act of faith and courage was the Abbey Church. When that shall be completed, it should be monumentally recorded that he was the man who boldly began it.” The writer goes on to describe his hurt at not being re-elected in the 1929 election (all previous abbots had resigned from office); he had been leading in the first ballots, but his Prior, Sylvester Mooney, gradually overtook him and was elected on the sixth scrutiny.

The section of the church built at this time, begun in February 1929, was handed over by the builders at the end of January 1933. The opening and blessing took place on June 20, and it was followed by a luncheon for 420 people in a marquee erected for the occasion.

Subsequent issues of the magazine carried photographs of the church and note the acquisition of various furnishings. These included the crib figures, built up gradually from Christmas 1933 to 1937, the gift of Miss Lambert; the altar in the north chapel in 1936, the gift of the parish and designed by Thomas Derrick; a monstrance in 1943, still in use, designed by Fr Oswald Dorman for which he had collected silver for ten years; a curtain behind the altar hung upon an oak frieze, the gift of the parish in 1938; the baldachino over the altar in 1949 (which went to our parish at Mumbles in 1978) and the following year the abbatial throne designed by Geoffrey Webb and made by the Bridgeman craftsmen of Lichfield, the legacy of the Misses Taylor in memory of their brother Abbot Stanislaus Taylor; the Stations of the Cross carved by Fr Aloysius Bloor from designs by Dame Werburg Welch of Stanbrook in 1954. Fr Aloysius also carved the tympanum over the south door. The organ, built by Rushworth & Dreaper to designs by Harold Darke, was installed in two sections, the first in 1938 and the second in 1953; an article on the organ by Fr Romuald Simpson OSB was published in Autumn 1954.

In the autumn 1934 number the editor proposed that the readers of the Magazine should contribute to the cost of stained glass for the east window: “Our Lady’s window depends on you. Will you not give?” He produced a diagram of the window with each pane marked. Each pane cost two guineas. Subsequent issues repeated the diagram but with panes filled in as they were paid for. There were 600 panes. The cost of the window would be £700, but by the next issue with ten panes blacked out it would need another £730 so costs were rising! By autumn 1936, the last mention, £105.1s.2d. had been collected. But the project appeared to falter. The reason was given in the Autumn 1969 issue when another editor, Fr Dunstan Cammack OSB, wrote in his appreciation of Abbot Sylvester Mooney’s retirement: “He resisted the pressure brought to bear to have the magnificent windows filled with stained glass; an addition which must have reduced the impression of light and grandeur which so strikes one on entering the church”. So it was a personal scheme of editor, Placid Barr OSB!

Fire

The Autumn 1943 edition reported the fire which broke out on the afternoon of June 6. It rendered the library/calefactory unusable as well as several monastic rooms in the Ark. From June to December the ‘scene of dereliction’ remained; restoration began in New Year 1944. The former library was to become what it had been designed to be, the monastic refectory; a calefactory was established in two rooms knocked into one (two-thirds of the present Conference Room 1), and the library was dispersed around the house “until such time as an adequate library is built”. Some 5000 volumes had been lost, but within a year 1800 new volumes were added. “It is gratifying that it is still possible to obtain many good pre-war editions,” commented the Spring 1944 edition.

In Autumn 1949 it was recorded that seven stained glass panels were incorporated in the refectory east window .They were presented by Mr J Dunster of Bucklebury, a parishioner who had during World War I collected fragments of glass from French churches which had been demolished and where there was no possibility of repair. The history of each piece was accurately recorded in a book also presented to us. Quite a number of fragments came from Douai and its environs.

The refectory ceiling was not finished until summer 1953 when there were installed “pre-moulded fibrous plaster sections, divisioned by beams of the same material which terminate in brackets and corbels. Splay panelling along the upper length of one wall and two closed embrasures at either end of the windowed side, together with two open brackets dividing the main windows complete the main features”. (Autumn 1953) In Spring 1957 was reported the blazoning of the eight shields on the corbels with coats of arms of our House, the abbeys of Bury St Edmunds, Evesham and Reading and Cathedral Priories of Winchester, Peterborough, Ely and Gloucester. The work was carried out by Mr Ilocks of Wokingham.

More monastery building

Several large noviciates in the fifties prompted ideas of more monastery building. The debate was opened in the Spring 1961 Douai Magazine with an article by Fr Swithun McLoughlin OSB, entitled Modern Monasteries. This was a brief synopsis of a much larger essay produced by the Douai students at the University of Louvain, Swithun McLoughlin, Martin Varley, Gervase Holdaway and Louis O’Dwyer. A building committee was set up and Frederick Gibberd was commissioned to design a complete monastery including the completion of the Abbey Church. His designs were shown in the Spring 1963 issue with a descriptive article by himself. Subsequent issues recorded the progress of the work, for which an appeal was launched. With much ceremony the laying of the foundation stone by the Apostolic Delegate, Archbishop Hyginus Cardinale, took place on June 13, 1964 and was described in the autumn issue of that year, which also included the text of Cardinale’s address. The Autumn 1967 number records that the community had moved to the new buildings at the beginning of the year and a open day was held on June 10 when visitors were shown round before the enclosure was finally established. About half of Gibberd’s plan was actually built. The Magazine noted that as a result of the building of the monastery there was an increase in the number of people coming to make private retreats, a foreshadowing of the future direction of our mission, with a separate Guest House being set up, as noted in the Autumn 1997 magazine.

Church completion

The Autumn 1978 issue has an article by Geoffrey Scott on the various churches that had served the community, written to celebrate the re-ordering of the Abbey Church, to the designs of Desmond Heuvel and with art work by David John. The Autumn 1986 number recorded that repairs were done on the cracks which had appeared in the temporary west wall of the church, and it “was pronounced safe for another four or five years”, which meant that it would have to be replaced or the church completed within that period. An article by Fr Peter Bowe in the 1988 number tells us that Abbot Gregory Freeman set up a building committee in May 1987, and that Michael Blee had been appointed architect. In the Winter 1990/1 edition we read in an article by Fr Romuald Simpson, that the final illness and death of Abbot Gregory “put all thoughts of any further progress out of our minds”. Abbot Leonard Vickers, however, who died suddenly within a year of his election, was determined to continue with the project, as was his successor, Abbot Finbar Kealy. By the end of 1990 building permission had been granted and an appeal was launched. The next issue was not until 1994, so there is no account of the actual completion and opening of the church, but that issue carried an article by Dr John Rowntree on the new organ built by Kenneth Tickell.

Associates & Oblates

In the Autumn 1976 issue we read: “A group of people”, which emerged from the Easter retreat, “ many of them local, have wished to form some sort of association with the Abbey, to make a firm commitment to daily prayer, learning about prayer and Benedictine spirituality, and to do some work for the Abbey. They do this by reciting Compline each evening and by meeting the monks at the Abbey once a month in order to share their life, attend a talk and discuss its implications.” Oblates in all but name. Fr Nicholas Broadbridge was the co-ordinator of the group. The Autumn 1980 edition reported the setting up of a lay community which also emerged from the Easter retreat. They gathered for short retreats in September and December. “Some have expressed a desire to set up a more permanent framework, in which they can share more fully in the Community life, while continuing to work in the world, ... the venue for residence are the old white cottages, which are being converted and decorated by a team of those visitors who come at weekends.” Fr Finbar Kealy OSB was involved in the initiative, but as he became a housemaster, Fr Leonard Vickers took over the guidance and leadership of the Lay Community. Fr Leonard became the first Oblate Director before his departure for Washington, when Fr Alexander Austin OSB took over. The resident lay community ceased in the middle eighties, and the 1987 edition records that Br Luke Whitfield OSB “had begun a Link Group based on frequent visitors to the cottages ... to build up the faith and ties with Douai of the people concerned”. The Autumn 1997 issue announced that having had a few oblates for a number of years Douai was now building up the Oblate Programme.

Agriculture

Monastic works and crafts were being developed during the thirties. The Autumn 1935 issue announced the arrival of an ancient bee hive in the orchard. The bees arrived in June from South Wales. Fr Anthony Baron was to look after them; more frames were found to be needed but it was discovered they were no longer made to fit that sort of hive, so a new hive had to be constructed around the frames that could be purchased. By September there was over thirty pounds of honey. The editor comments “the production of honey may eventually become a notable feature of our abbey”. Subsequent issues reported the progress of the apiary. Douai monks, including Andrew Gibbons, Philip Robinson, Robert Biddulph, Peter Bowe and currently Christopher Greener have kept bees ever since.

It was the 1939-45 war which caused the rapid development of agriculture. The Autumn 1941 issue reported that crops, potatoes and wheat, were growing, whilst the lawns had been allowed to grow for hay. In the Autumn 1942 issue we read “When the war ends we shall have to start a farm of our own in order to make use of our newly won and hardly acquired skill and experience. Our farm work, together with our keeping of bees and hens, are beginning to make us feel quite rustic.” Monks and boys also helped on local farms for the national war effort. After the war Fr John Grimbaldeston developed the orchard with the help of Guy Ellingham, a parishioner and local fruit farmer. The land cultivation continued, chickens flourished, and even tobacco, grown by Fr Oswald Dorman, smoked by him and any others who were desperate enough. The autumn 1962 edition informs us that the last of the pigs were disposed of in May, the first time since just after the First World War that we had been pigless.

Crafts

Vestment making was another craft to be developed. Fr Sebastian Simpson had made the white pontifical set for use at Christmas 1934, whilst still working on a parish. The Spring 1937 issue reports that he together with Fr Mark Ackers established vestment making at Douai. A year later the Magazine said this was “work in full accord with monastic tradition and one which we are glad to see so far on the way to establishing itself as something permanent at the Abbey”. Subsequent issues report the number of vestments made for the sacristy and recommend the parish fathers to use the monastery vestment makers. A flyer advertising them was sent out with one issue.

In Spring 1937 it was recorded that Br Robert Richardson had set up a printing press two years earlier with a single hand press and that it was flourishing and produced letter heads, circulars, programmes and such like. He hoped eventually with the aid of more presses and helpers to print books including the Magazine. Bookbinding was first mentioned in Spring 1937, as wanting accommodation. It was revived in Spring 1946 under Prior Sebastian Simpson with the novices. They were being trained by Peter McLeish who had retired from the Central School of Arts & Crafts, Holborn, in the tradition of Cobden-Saunderson, though the Spring 1957 issue reported that book-binding had temporarily ceased. It was revived in the eighties by a friend of the community, Toby Roper Power, who taught several of the juniors, and more recently by Fr Bernard Swinhoe who continues to receive professional training. Printing continued to flourish for many years, under Fr Leo Arkwright after Fr Robert went to the parish of Cheltenham in 1954, until it was made redundant by computers in recent years.

School

New buildings for the school were announced in the Spring 1935 issue, comprising classrooms, library, swimming pool and theatre/gymnasium. These were intended to be one joined building but “unfortunately the obstructionist policy of Bradfield Council concerning the moving of the right-of-way which passes through the new wing as planned has produced a deadlock between them and us.” Unfortunately space does not allow us to chart the progress of the school during the century to its demise in 1999. The first half of the period was admirably covered in a highly prophetic article written by the present abbot in the Autumn 1975 edition under the title Mariafels. After the format of the Magazine was changed to A4 in 1980 (beginning yet another New Series and vol. 1 no 1!)and production reduced to once a year, school news gradually began to dominate the Magazine. Although scholarly articles and Community Notes were not neglected, the Magazine began to emulate other schools magazines in design and content.

Ditcham

Probably the biggest venture after the war was the buying and opening of Ditcham Park as a preparatory school, the need for which had been discussed before the war. During the summer holidays working parties from Douai had gone to Ditcham to clean and prepare the place for the school. On September 20, four monks with Fr Alphonsus Tierney as superior had taken up residence and began praying the Office in the chapel next day. The description in the Spring 1949 issue tells us that the mansion was built in 1888 by the Cave family in the Jacobean style. It had a fine chapel which had fallen into other use but was now restored. The estate comprised some 300 acres of beechwoods and open downland at a height of 600’. There were extensive views over the Solent to the Isle of Wight. For a school it had a short life; the Autumn 1975 issue reported that Ditcham Park closed on July 8 after 27 years or 81 terms. In the article Mariafels already mentioned, Fr Geoffrey Scott commented: “ ... We can almost sense that its (Ditcham’s) establishment was like that of a child born out of season. It belonged very much to the late Victorian mushrooming of boarding prep schools housed in country villas sprinkled throughout the south of England: ‘one weekend, the prefects paid a visit to Ditcham, and they returned telling wonderful tales of venison, horses, decanters, and matrons in evening dress’. (quoted from the Spring 1949 issue).”

Contemporary events

The Magazine could not completely ignore external events. So the Spring 1935 issue was fulsome in its praise for King George V, on the occasion of the Silver Jubilee of his reign; a solemn High Mass was sung and the Abbey Church was floodlit. The monastic chapter sent a telegram of good wishes and loyalty in the name of the abbey and school. By contrast the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II does not seem to have been mentioned. The war, of course, affected the Magazine directly in that limited paper supplies meant fewer pages and less high quality paper. Lists of former pupils who were casualties occurred in each issue, and there were many obituaries of young old boys. Fr Robert Richardson serialised his memoirs of the war in several issues beginning in the Winter 1989/90 edition.

The Second Vatican Council also gets plenty of coverage. Several articles attempt to explain its work, and of course the liturgical changes are all chronicled. In his obituary of Abbot Sylvester Mooney, Abbot Gregory Freeman wrote in Autumn 1988 “Reluctantly perhaps, but nevertheless firmly, he led the way in the liturgical changes encouraged by Vatican II.” The Magazine records the efforts made to educate the community on the Council’s work. So in the spring issue of 1964 we read “Abbot Butler discussed the implications of the Vatican Council in general, whilst Fr Crichton dealt with the Liturgical Decree”, and in Autumn 1965 past pupil Anthony Milner spoke on English Singing in the Mass. It also charts the course of the liturgical changes in the community’s office and Mass. The community’s work in spreading the news to the wider church is also recorded. Thus in Spring 1965 we read of the “Community Leaflets, which draw out brief, fundamental points of present day theology in simple language”, and of the Pastoral Publications, handbooks to enable people to participate in various liturgies such as baptism and confirmation. The Magazine also carried articles such as Has the Church Changed? by Swithun McLoughlin OSB, Worshipping Together by Simon McNally OSB in the Spring 1966 issue and Compromise -- or Balance by Boniface Moran OSB in Autumn 1969. Another venture was the organising of a series of Pastoral Liturgy Conferences for clergy, the first of which was held in January 1964, which was another foreshadowing of the direction our mission would take in the future when an Outreach programme was developed by Fr Peter Bowe OSB (Winter 1994), and the establishment of the Pastoral Programme was recorded in the Autumn 1996 issue.

Of necessity this survey of a hundred years from the pages of The Douai Magazine is selective, and much that would have made interesting reading has been omitted from lack of space, but hopefully it illustrates the importance of the Magazine as an organ of record.‡

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The Douai Magazine is published at Douai Abbey, Upper Woolhampton, Reading, Berks, RG7 5TQ. Phone: 0118 971 5300 Fax: 0118 971 5303 E-mail editor@douaiabbey.org.uk
20.03.03. Registered charity no 236962

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