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.
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 continental Carthusians in exile. Building took place between 1876 to 1883 to designs by a French architect, Clovis Normand, who had at his disposal a generous budget. The number of monks has varied: 30 in 1883, 70 in 1928, 22 in 1984.
The buildings are in a French Gothic Revival style described by some as "weak", 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 and the Virgin Mary; and an unusually tall (203Â ft) spire. It stands in the centre of buildings including a library with a collection of rare books and manuscripts and a chapter house decorated with images of the martyrdom of the monks' predecessors. The Great Cloister, more than a kilometre long and one of the largest in the world, connects the 34 hermitages to the church and the other buildings, embracing four acres of orchards and the monastic burial ground.
See also
- Abbeys and priories in England
- List of Carthusian monasteries
- List of monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII of England
- List of places of worship in Horsham (district)
Further reading
- Robin Bruce Lockhart, Half-way to Heaven: The Hidden Life of the Sublime Carthusians (London: Thames Methuen, 1985)
- Nancy Klein Maguire, "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 ISBN 978-1-58648-327-2, paperback 978-1-58648-432-3)
References
External sources
- St. Hugh's Charterhouse website
