Nashdom, also known as Nashdom Abbey, is a former country house and former Anglican Benedictine abbey in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England. Designed in Neo-Georgian style by architect Edwin Lutyens, it is a Grade II* listed building. [1] It was converted into apartments in 1997. The gardens are Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. [2]
The name Nashdom is romanised Russian (Russian:Наш дом,IPA: [naʂdom] ), meaning "our home". [3] Lutyens' clients were Prince and Princess Dolgorouki. [2] Prince Alexis, a son of Prince Serge Dolgorouki, was formerly the chamberlain in the Russian court. [4] In 1898 he married Frances, the only daughter and heiress of the Scottish shipping magnate Fleetwood Pellew Wilson, [5] of Wappenham Manor, Northamptonshire. [6] The couple's British residences included Braemar Castle, Aberdeenshire, and a house in Upper Grosvenor Street, London. [4]
The Princess wanted an additional residence, for royal guests and house parties. [7] Lutyens visited the site in July 1905, thinking it beautiful but a very difficult one for the Princess's ideal house, [8] which he thought would cost £20,000. Her initial budget was only £6,000, and they finally agreed on a design costing £15,000. [9] Sources differ on the house's completion date, ranging from 1908, [7] to 1911. [1]
The Prince died, aged 68, [4] in June 1915. Thereafter, the Princess lived in Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France, where she died in August 1919, aged 69. [5] In her will, she left Nashdom for the use of the Dolgorouki family, under the stewardship of Serge Alexandrovitch Dolgorouki, aided by her executor, Herbert Brisbane Ewart. [6]
Lutyens built the house in Neo-Georgian style, using whitewashed brick. It is one of his earliest completely neoclassical buildings. To accommodate the steeply sloping site, he built a basement level under the southwest half of the house. [10]
The northwest, entrance front had an urban appearance, built tight against the road. [11] Massive and austerely neoclassical, it had at its centre a Doric colonnade giving into the entrance porch, directly beyond which was, not the main entrance door, but access via a wrought iron gate into a semicircular courtyard. [10] Instead, the main door was inside the porch on the left, giving access to the entrance hall. A door in the porch on the right gave access to the service quarters. [12]
The entrance hall contained two staircases. The main one, straight ahead from the door and 12 feet (3.7 m) wide, [10] led up to the Big Room, the main room for entertaining. [7] A second staircase, at right angles to the first and 8 feet (2.4 m) wide, [10] led towards the suite of rooms on the garden front, [12] via a grand landing. The landing had a wind dial on the wall, showing the wind direction superimposed on a local map. It was connected to a weathervane on the roof. [10]
The southeast, garden front was much less severe than the entrance front, and has been called one of the most unusual facades of any Georgian house. [11] Lutyens made extensive use of green-shuttered sash windows, [12] spaced exceptionally close together. [11] Along the garden front, starting from the eastern end, were a loggia, the Big Room, a circular drawing room fronted by a broad bow window, a glass-domed hall known as the Winter Garden, a dining room fronted by another bow window, and a smoking room. The bow windows continued up the facade, and the circular drawing room was surmounted by a circular bedroom. [12] There was a semicircular dip in the centre of the facade, [11] probably in order to let light into the glass dome. [10]
The Anglican Benedictine community of Caldey Abbey, Pembrokeshire, converted to Roman Catholicism in 1913, with the exception of a small Anglican remnant, which moved into Abbey House at Pershore Abbey, Worcestershire. [13] The new community was formally established in May 1914, though it had only one professed monk and two oblates. [14] In 1915 the monk, Anselm Mardon, converted to Rome and went back to Caldey. [15] Denys Prideaux, one of the oblates, was appointed warden, [16] and in 1922 became the first abbot. [17] The community soon found itself in need of more space. The Dolgoroukis' agent, Ewart, was a friend of the community, and alerted it to Nashdom's availability. The community bought Nashdom in May 1924 for £8,000, [18] and moved there in September 1926. [19]
Nashdom Abbey was a centre of Anglican Papalism, and used the Roman Rite. Its leading exponent in this was the liturgical scholar Gregory Dix. [20] He joined the community in 1926, just before the move from Pershore, and in 1948 became prior. He died in 1952 and was buried in the abbey cemetery. [21]
The composer and musicologist Anselm Hughes was Nashdom's director of music, 1922–45, and prior, 1936–45. He died at Nashdom in 1974. [22] Another member of the community, Bernard Clements, became a broadcaster and the vicar of All Saints, Margaret Street, London. [23]
In 1935, Nashdom started the training of a group of American Episcopalians led by Paul Severance. In 1939, they founded St Gregory's House, later known as St Gregory's Priory, in Valparaiso, Indiana. In 1946 the priory moved to Three Rivers, Michigan. It remained a dependency of Nashdom until 1969, when it became St Gregory's Abbey. [24]
In 1987, the shrinking community left Nashdom for Elmore Abbey, near Newbury, Berkshire, where they built an abbey church, completed in 1995. [13] Justin Welby, who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury, was a regular visitor to the abbey from the early 1990s, and became an Anglican Benedictine oblate in 2004. [25]
In September 2010 the remaining four monks moved again, into the Principal's House of Sarum College, in the close of Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire. In June 2011, they gained planning permission to build an extension to the house, including an oratory. [26]
Nashdom and its outbuildings were converted into an apartment complex in 1997. The house was turned into 15 apartments. Although the interior was much changed, the wind dial on the landing was kept, together with a bust of Princess Dolgorouki. The complex includes a swimming pool, tennis court and gym. [27]
There are 4 hectares (9.9 acres) of grounds, forming a long, south-pointing triangle, with the house at the northern end. The southeast, garden front of the house overlooks the main lawn. [2] A massive retaining wall, 20 feet (6.1 m) high, [10] topped by a balustrade, runs along the southwest edge of this lawn, with a great stone stairway descending in two flights to the former west lawn, now a car park. From the top of the stairway, a straight path (originally stone terracing) runs southeast, along the top of the retaining wall, and another runs northeast along the house's garden front, leading to a circular, walled rose garden. [2]
From the main lawn, a central path, originally an avenue lined with chestnuts, leads southwards into mixed woodland, underplanted with rhododendrons. The small abbey cemetery is among the trees. [2]
A number of Lutyens-designed features are Grade II listed buildings, including the rose garden wall, a stable, a gatehouse, and an alcove at the northern end of the former chestnut avenue. [2]
Benedict of Nursia, often known as Saint Benedict, was an Italian Christian monk, writer, and theologian. He is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Lutheran Churches, the Anglican Communion, and Old Catholic Churches. In 1964 Pope Paul VI declared Benedict a patron saint of Europe.
The Benedictines, officially the Order of Saint Benedict, are a mainly contemplative monastic religious order of the Catholic Church for men and for women who follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. The male religious are also sometimes called the Black Monks, in reference to the colour of their religious habits, in contrast to other Benedictine orders such as the Olivetans, who wear white. They were founded in 529 by Benedict of Nursia, a 6th-century Italian monk who laid the foundations of Benedictine monasticism through the formulation of his Rule. Benedict's sister, Scholastica, possibly his twin, also became a religious from an early age, but chose to live as a hermit. They retained a close relationship until her death.
Pershore Abbey, at Pershore in Worcestershire, was an Anglo-Saxon abbey and is now an Anglican parish church, the Church of the Holy Cross.
Pershore is a market town and civil parish in the Wychavon district in Worcestershire, England, on the banks of the River Avon. At the 2011 census, the population was 7,125. The town is best known for Pershore Abbey. Pershore is situated 6 miles (10 km) west of Evesham and 6 miles (10 km) east of Upton-upon-Severn in the Vale of Evesham.
Caldey Island is a small island near Tenby, Pembrokeshire, Wales, less than 1 mile (1.6 km) off the coast. With a recorded history going back over 1,500 years, it is one of the holy islands of Britain. A number of traditions inherited from Celtic times are observed by the Cistercian monks of Caldey Abbey, the owners of the island.
In Christianity, an oblate is a person who is specifically dedicated to God and to God's service.
The Abbey of Our Lady, Help of Christians, commonly known as Worth Abbey, is a community of Roman Catholic monks who follow the Rule of St Benedict near Turners Hill village, in West Sussex, England. Founded in 1933, the abbey is part of the English Benedictine Congregation. As of 2020, the monastic community had 21 monks.
Anglican Papalism, also referred to as Anglo-Papalism, is a subset of Anglo-Catholicism with adherents manifesting a particularly high degree of influence from, and even identification with, the Roman Catholic Church. This position has historically been referred to as Anglican Papalism; the term Anglo-Papalism is an American neologism and it seems not to have appeared in print prior to the 1990s. Anglican Papalists have suggested "that the only way to convert England is by means of an 'English Uniate' rite". Anglican Papalists have historically practiced praying the Dominican rosary, among other Marian devotions, Corpus Christi procession, as well as the reservation of and Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.
St. Anselm's Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey located at 4501 South Dakota Avenue, N.E., in Washington, D.C. It operates the boys' middle and high school St. Anselm's Abbey School, which was ranked by the Washington Post as the most challenging in Washington, D.C., and as the most challenging private high school in the U.S.
George Eglinton Alston Dix, known as Gregory Dix, was a British monk and priest of Nashdom Abbey, an Anglican Benedictine community. He was a noted liturgical scholar whose work had particular influence on the reform of Anglican liturgy in the mid-20th century.
There are a number of Benedictine Anglican religious orders, some of them using the name Order of St. Benedict (OSB). Just like their Roman Catholic counterparts, each abbey/priory/convent is independent of each other. The vows are not made to an order, but to a local incarnation of the order, hence each individual order is free to develop its own character and charism, yet each under a common rule of life after the precepts of St. Benedict. Most of the communities include a confraternity of oblates. The order consists of a number of independent communities.
St. Gregory's Abbey is an American monastic community of men living under the Rule of St. Benedict within the Episcopal Church. The abbey is located near Three Rivers in St. Joseph County, Michigan.
The Abbey of Saint Mary and Saint Louis is an abbey of the Catholic English Benedictine Congregation (EBC) located in Creve Coeur, in St. Louis County, Missouri in the United States. The Abbey is an important presence in the spiritual life of the Archdiocese of St. Louis. The monks of the Abbey live their faith according to the Benedictine discipline of 'prayer and work', praying the Divine Office five times daily, celebrating daily Masses in English and Latin, and working in the two parishes under their pastoral care and in the Saint Louis Priory School, which the Abbey runs as an apostolate. The Abbey and its school sit on a 150-acre (0.61 km2) campus in west St. Louis County, in the city of Creve Coeur.
The Community of the Holy Cross (CHC) is an Anglican religious order founded in 1857 by Elizabeth Neale, at the invitation of Father Charles Fuge Lowder, to work with the poor around St Peter's London Docks in Wapping. The Community moved to a large convent in Haywards Heath.
Ampleforth Abbey is a monastery of Benedictine monks a mile to the east of Ampleforth, North Yorkshire, England, part of the English Benedictine Congregation. It descends from the pre-Reformation community at Westminster Abbey through the last surviving monk from Westminster, Sigebert Buckley. As of 2023 the monastery has 46 monks, and sometimes will have 50 nuns of the monastery organization.
In order to associate the faithful, who were not Oblates of St. Benedict, in a certain measure with the Benedictine Order, a Confraternity of St. Benedict was founded in the second half of the nineteenth century, at first by the English Congregation.
Caldey Abbey is an abbey of the Trappists situated on Caldey Island off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales, south of Tenby.
Alton Abbey is an Anglican Benedictine monastery in the village of Beech, near Alton, Hampshire, England. The abbey is not far from one of Hampshire's highest points, King's Hill. The community was founded by the Revd Charles Plomer Hopkins in 1884, as the "Society of Saint Paul", in Rangoon (Burma) and Calcutta (India) to work with destitute or distressed merchant seafarers and their chaplains.
The Society of SS. Peter and Paul (SSPP) was an English Anglo-Catholic publishing company, sometimes mistakenly thought to have been in the tradition of Anglican Papalism. It was established in 1911 as a reaction to the works of the Anglican priest and liturgist Percy Dearmer, particularly The Parson's Handbook which advocated a liturgical style allegedly distinct to England, and rooted in the Sarum rite.
Homewood is an Arts and Crafts style country house in Knebworth, Hertfordshire, England. Designed and built by architect Edwin Lutyens around 1900–3, using a mixture of vernacular and Neo-Georgian architecture, it is a Grade II* listed building. The house was one of Lutyens' first experiments in the addition of classical features to his previously vernacular style, and the introduction of symmetry into his plans. The gardens, also designed by Lutyens, are Grade II listed in the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.