Post by Dave on Sept 17, 2017 15:16:23 GMT
Buckfast Abbey 17th September 2017
With the sun deciding to shine it was far too good an afternoon to stay in. I could not make up my mind where to go and at the last minute decided to revisit Buckfast Abbey.
For anyone who has never been to the Abbey it is free to enter and also free to park, so it’s only the cost of the petrol to find to get there. It is a fine Abbey but as far as church buildings go, is not that old and was not completed until 1938. (See history below).
A lady walked past me and sounded rather disappointed that the Abbey was not in ruins, I’m not sure where she got the idea it would be. The gardens looked very poor on this visit, but that was mainly down to all the flowering plants looking half dead.
Not far from the Abbey are the Holy Trinity Church Ruins, this fine church suffered an arson attack in 1992. it is well worth a visit either before going to the Abbey or afterwards.
You can read about my visit to the church here
davesworld.proboards.com/thread/507/trinity-church-ruins-buckfastleigh-sunday
History
Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfast, near Buckfastleigh, Buckfast first became home to an abbey in 1018. The first Benedictine abbey was followed by a Savignac (later Cistercian) abbey constructed on the site of the current abbey in 1134. The monastery was surrendered for dissolution in 1539, with the monastic buildings stripped and left as ruins, before being finally demolished. The former abbey site was used as a quarry, and later became home to a Gothic mansion house.
In 1882 the site was purchased by a group of French Benedictine monks, who refounded a monastery on the site, dedicated to Saint Mary. New monastic buildings and a temporary church were constructed incorporating the existing Gothic house. Work on a new abbey church, which was constructed mostly on the footprint of the former Cistercian abbey, started in 1907. The church was consecrated in 1932 but not completed until 1938.
The Abbey is self-supporting, with a farm where vegetables are grown and bees, pigs and cattle are kept, a shop which sells wine, honey beeswax, fudge and other items made by religious communities throughout the world, and a gift shop, book shop, and restaurant.
Buckfast Tonic Wine
The monastery's most successful product is Buckfast Tonic Wine, a fortified wine which the monks began making (to a French recipe) in the 1890s. Its perceived links to violent anti-social behaviour - especially in Scotland - have been a controversial issue for the abbey[28][29] which has employed a youth worker in one area affected.
Following a decision by Police Scotland to attach anti-crime labels to bottles in some areas, the abbey's bottler and distributor, J Chandler and Co. announced its intention to pursue legal action
