Erdington Abbey
| Erdington Abbey | |
|---|---|
| Church of St Thomas and St Edmund | |
| File:Erdington Abbey by Richard Law, Geograph 5334340.jpg | |
| Location | Birmingham |
| Country | England |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| History | |
| Dedication | Thomas of Canterbury and Edmund of Canterbury |
| Architecture | |
| Heritage designation | Grade II listed |
| Architect | Charles Hansom |
| Groundbreaking | 1848 |
| Completed | 1850 |
| Administration | |
| Archdiocese | Birmingham |
Erdington Abbey Church (grid reference SP112922) on Sutton Road, Erdington, Birmingham, England, is the more usual name of the grade II listed church of Saints Thomas and Edmund of Canterbury. It is the church of a Roman Catholic parish in the Archdiocese of Birmingham served by the Redemptorists. The abbey itself was the adjacent building, now Highclare School.
Erdington Abbey church
In 1847 Father Heneage built a chapel in Erdington High Street, on the croft opposite the end of Station Lane.
Before this priests from Oscott College had said mass in a house on the High Street, but Catholics in Erdington are mainly indebted to the Rev. Daniel H. Haigh, founder of the Church of SS Thomas & Edmund of Canterbury. He laid the foundation stone of the new church on 26 May 1848. The church was opened and consecrated by Bishop Ullathorne on 11 June 1850. The church is an example of the Gothic Revival.
The church was designed by Charles Hansom, who built the steeple of the church 117 ft (36 m) high, which is also the length of the building.[1] The plate was designed by Augustus Pugin and made by Hardman.
Abbey
In 1876 Father Haigh handed over his church, parish and estate of 4 acres (16,000 m2) to the Benedictine monks from Beuron in Germany, exiled for their faith from their own country during the "Kulturkampf", the anti-Catholic and anti-clerical movement headed by Bismarck.
The abbey was built on this land next to the church. Its building is also grade II listed.
Roman Catholic Redemptorists
The Benedictine monks were later displaced a second time, as a result of problems experienced by the predominantly German Beuronese Congregation during World War I (1914–18). After World War I, during which the community suffered aggravation, it was possible for the community to return to their homeland,[2] and Erdington Abbey was disbanded.[3]
The parish came under the control of the Redemptorist order of priests in 1922, and is currently served by Fr. Elias Gweme CSsR - Rector and Parish Priest, Fr. Francis Dickinson CSsR, Fr. Isaac Davies CSsR, and Fr. Royston Price CSsR.
Cemetery
The attached cemetery contains war graves of three soldiers of World War I and two soldiers and four Royal Air Force personnel of World War II.[4]
From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia
Erdington Abbey, situated in a suburb of Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, belongs to the Benedictine congregation of St. Martin of Beuron, Germany, and is dedicated to St. Thomas of Canterbury. Driven from Germany by the Falk laws, four of these exiled monks went to Erdington at the request of Bishop Ullathorne, O.S.B., and of the Rev. Daniel Haigh, M.A., a convert Anglican clergyman who gave them the splendid Gothic church which he had built and embellished out of his own private fortune, as a thank-offering to Almighty God for the gift of the true Faith. Father Haigh's modest presbytery was the first monastery, and here Dom Placid Walter, Arch-Abbot of the Beuron Congregation, Dom Hildebrand de Hemptine, later Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Order, Dorn Leo Linse, afterwards Abbot of Fort Augustus in Scotland, Dom Leodgar Stocker, and a lay brother took up their abode in October, 1876. Dom Placid was the first prior. Two years later, Dom Hildebrand succeeded Dom Placid, and at once set about building a monastery that would accommodate a community large enough to chant the Divine Office in choir. It was finished in 1880, when the number of monks was increased to eleven with three lay brothers.
Meanwhile Father Haigh had found his last resting-place in the Blessed Sacrament chapel, so the untenanted presbytery was converted into a Catholic grammar school, the first of its kind in the neighborhood of Birmingham, with Dom Wilfrid Wallace, an English priest who had lately joined the community, as head master. Dom Leo Linse became prior in 1882, and was succeeded in 1886 by Dom Boniface Wolff, who was followed, in turn, by Dom Silvester Schlecht in 1895. On the feast of the Assumption, 1896, the priory was transformed into an abbey by a Brief of Leo XIII, though three years elapsed before it received an abbot. These were years of spiritual and material development. A novitiate was opened and a school for oblates, several members were added to the community, and a large addition made to the monastic buildings. These comprised the abbot's apartments and chapel, rooms for guests, entrance hall, parlours, novitiate, and clericate. They were completed and blessed in 1898. In July, 1899, Dom Ansgar Hockelmann was appointed its first abbot, and he was blessed in the abbey church on September 3, by Bishop Ilsley of Birmingham. Since then a spacious refectory and library have been built, and the community continues to grow.
References
- Back to citation Harris, Penelope, "The Architectural Achievement of Joseph Aloysius Hansom (1803-1882)", The Edwin Mellen Press, 2010, pp.164-166, ISBN 0-7734-3851-3
- Back to citation "Welcome to the Erdington Abbey Website", Erdington Abbey
- Back to citation Benedictine Order, The Catholic Encyclopedia Supplement. I, Part 1, 1922, p. 97
- Back to citation CWGC Cemetery Record. Breakdown from casualty record. Date retrieved 10 February 2013.
External links
- Original Erdington Abbey Parish Website
- Official Erdington Abbey
- Erdington Abbey, 1850-1876-2001 by Michael Hodgetts
- Historic England. "Church - Grade II (1076125)". National Heritage List for England.
- Historic England. "Old Abbey, now Highclare School - Grade II (1343155)". National Heritage List for England.