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Caldey, Prinknash and Nashdom – A Shared Pictorial History

by Richard Barton

CALDEY 1906-1928

I have tried to limit these to the Benedictine period as there are numerous cards dating from

the Cistercian years which commence in January 1929.

Published by the Church Association

Of the thirty-three members of the Caldey Community in 1913 twenty six were eventually

received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church, twenty of them on 5th March.

Five others – one a novice and two oblates – (including Denys Prideaux) remained Anglicans

until they died. The religious affiliation of the other two is not known. Only eight of the original

members persevered in this the Community of their profession for the rest of their lives.

(Details from Dom Aelred Baker’s ‘Why did we do it?’ (2013)

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Postcard photo taken on the day after the conversion – 6th March 1913 – showing the monks

in their pre-conversion habits. Centre leading from left. Abbot Butler (Downside), Abbot

Carlyle (Caldey) Archbishop Mostyn, Abbot Marmion (Maredsous) Dom Bede Camm

(Maredsous) centre in white – Dom Leo Packer (Chant Master)

Postcard of Clifton Cathedral sent to Brother Laurence Gibling in January 1914

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Dom Aelred Carlyle, Abbot of Painsthorpe (1902-1906) and Caldey (1906-1921)

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Abbot Aelred (Benjamin Fernley Carlyle) 1874-1955

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PERSHORE 1914-1926

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NASHDOM 1926-1987

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PRINKNASH 1928-

The Benedictines of Caldey arrived at Prinknash Park on 6th October 1928.

A Collection of annotated postcards sent to the Lady Abbess of Oulton, in Staffordshire, by

Rev. Dom Lawrence O.S.B.

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‘East front – entrance for seculars and to Priory and Church (on right)’

‘North West side – enclosure’

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‘East front and entrance – bells (brought from Caldey) on right’

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‘View from lower avenue – North side of Monastery and steps. The bay window of the choir’

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‘South West – avenue to East entrance’

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‘South side windows of lay-brothers’ Common Room and Dormitory. Refectory below road-

level, on this side’

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‘The Calvary in the Cemetery (recently put up) by the grave of Dom Gilbert Thomas – the

first to die here in July last year’

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‘South West’

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‘Choir and High Altar – frontal of carved and gilded wood – usually covered with silk frontals

of colour of the day. Plain stone underneath. Tabernacle veiled. Tomb of Mr. Dyer-Edwardes

in Sacristy’

‘Sanctuary and Tomb of Mr. D. E. The wall and door at end have gone! The choir is now

twice as big.’

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‘The Choir – as it used to be! The door opened into a kind of “ante-choir” and the Sacristy’

A second set of annotated postcards:

‘West side – Enclosure (original entrance)’

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‘North side – from terrace steps’

‘East side – General entrance (original back entrance)’

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‘Tabernacle – Note its position and covering’

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‘Prior’s Stall (with canopy) on left – formerly Stall of “Father Ignatius” at Llanthony’

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‘XV or XVI century oak statue given by Mrs. Sutcliffe (nee More-Waterton), a descendent of

Sir Thomas More’

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‘Sacristy and entrance hall – Note how spaciousness is given with the neat arrangement’

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‘Formerly, a passage, laundry and coal-cellar!’

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Sent Sept 5th 1951

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1932

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1930

1934

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‘Tabernacle – note its covering. It may be said of the whole that there is scarcely a more

beautiful altar existing in Europe today’

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Dom Benedict Steuart, Prior of Prinknash 1928-1937

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Abbot Wilfrid Upson with Mother Agnes Finnegan O.S.B., Abbess of Kylemore Abbey,

Ireland

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‘The Abbot of Prinknash on the Solemnity of St, Joseph. Note the magnificent vestments and

exquisite mitre’

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31st January 1938, Fort Augustus Inverness-shire, Postmark

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Abbot Wilfrid Upson at Pluscarden in 1948

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Farnborough became a daughter house of Prinknash

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Dated 15th April 1944

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For more information:-

Fr. Aelred Baker, ‘Why did we do it? – The story of the Caldey Conversions in 1913’, Centenary

Booklet 1913-2013

Fr. Aelred Baker, ‘The Floodgates of Memory – The Life of Abbot Aelred Carlyle and

Community, 2009

Fr. Aelred Baker, ‘All those years in Exile – The Life of Abbot Aelred Carlyle and his Community

(1914-1955), 2010

Pluscarden Abbey, ‘The Caldey Conversion – A Contemporary Chronicle, 2013

Aidan Harker, ‘Anglican Abbot: Dom Denys Prideaux, 2016, Anglo-Catholic History Society