Mount St Bernard Abbey

The early history of Mount St Bernard Abbey is linked with an earlier, short-lived foundation of Cistercian monks in Lulworth, Dorset and with the Abbey of Mount Melleray in Ireland. Following the suppression of monasteries in France, a small colony of dispossessed Trappist monks had arrived in London in 1794, with the intention of moving on to found a monastery in Canada. They came to the attention of Thomas Weld, a Catholic recusant and philanthropist who distinguished himself in relieving the misfortunes of refugees of the French Revolution and who provided the monks with land on his estate in East Lulworth, where they could establish a monastic community. The monks remained at Lulworth…

The carved heads are by Father Vincent Eley and Robert Kiddey (1900–84), a Newark-based artist and sculptor, who was responsible for the large woodcarving in Southwell Minster, entitled "Flight into Egypt" They represent four angels and eight famous Cistercians: Pope Eugene III; Cardinal Bona; St Peter of Tarentaise; St Aelred of Rievaulx; St Lutgardis of Aywières; Eleanor, Queen of Aragon; King Eric II of Norway and Walter Espec, knight. The armorial water heads are the coats of arms of twenty Cistercian monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII. These include: Garendon in Leicestershire; Fountains and Rievaulx in Yorkshire; Waverley in Surrey; Beaulieu in Hampshire; Tintern in Monmouth; Ford in…

The Abbey Church is dedicated to the Greater Glory of God, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Bernard. The severe, undecorated Gothic style of the church is traditional in the Cistercian order and can be seen in the remnants of old Cistercian abbeys. Pugin borrowed from these remains in his efforts to reproduce their simple and austere beauty and personally supervised the construction of the western nave, which was completed in 1844. The granite used to build the monastery was quarried by the monks in the monastery grounds. The Ketton stone came from Normanton Hall, whilst the Walldon stone came from Lord Ancaster's quarries. In 1839, the founder, Ambrose Phillipps de Lisle wrote:…