St Beuno's
Encyclopedia
St Beuno's Ignatian Spirituality Centre, known locally as St Beuno's College is a grade II* listed building and Jesuit college in Tremeirchion
, Denbighshire
, Wales. It was the home of the Victorian poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins
.
, near St Asaph
in North Wales, UK, was built in 1848 as a place of study for Jesuits. It was built as a "theologate", a place where trainee priests study theology, along the lines of a small Oxbridge college. Up to this time prospective Jesuit priests studied in Stonyhurst College
, near Clitheroe
in rural Lancashire
and for a short time abroad, but the increasing numbers put a strain on the old buildings. In 1846 Fr Randal Lythgoe, the then Superior
of the Society of Jesus in Britain, while visiting a Jesuit parish at Holywell
in Flintshire
, travelled to see some farm land that the Society owned near Tremeirchion, and immediately decided that this should be the site for a new theologate. In early Victorian days, when epidemics of typhoid and cholera
regularly swept towns and cities killing large numbers, the fresh country air of North Wales was considered to provide a suitable environment in which to prepare young men to go and serve in the new industrial towns and cities. The dedication of the college – not to a traditional Jesuit saint but to a well-known local abbot, St Beuno
– is very unusual in the Society of Jesus.
, best known for the Hansom cab
. Outwardly the fine stone buildings give a grand impression; inside there are broad corridors and large but simple rooms. Gerard Manley Hopkins
, the Jesuit poet who studied at St Beuno's from 1874-77, described the building in a letter to his father: "It is built of limestone, decent outside, skimping within, Gothic like Lancing College
done worse". St Beuno's incorporates features popular in Gothic buildings such as gargoyle
s and stone carvings.
Hansom's St Beuno's enclosed a quadrangle garden. On the west side of the quad there was a basement gallery containing the Recreation Room, a schoolroom, two private rooms and the Entrance Hall. On the floor above was the Library, which looks both inside and out as though it were a chapel (and is a chapel today), the Rector's Room and a "stranger's" room. On the south side, the tallest side, rising higher than the tower, were three galleries which housed the teachers and the students. On the north side was the refectory with a pulpit for the reader.
Within 20 years of its being built the College was too small: extra rooms in the attics were added and a new North Wing was built to the left of the Tower, all very much in keeping with Hansom's original design.
. It then became a place of study for the last year of Jesuit training, the tertianship
. During the Second World War it was a place of refuge to many Jesuit novices who were sent from London
during and after the Blitz
. After the War it reverted to being a place of tertianship until 1980, although ten years earlier the house had begun to open to religious sisters on first 8-day and then 30-day retreats. During the 1970s, as those engaged in the tertianship became increasingly uneasy living in the countryside, the retreat work grew from strength to strength.
Only two very poor, unsympathetic additions have been made to the St Beuno's buildings since the 1870s - a brick-built ablution block and a boiler room.
. As well as the building, the long flight of Welsh slate steps up the garden and the massive retaining wall there are also listed as being of architectural interest.
Today the house has a thriving programme of retreats all the year round, from weekends to 30 days. It also offers courses in Ignatian Spirituality
from one to six months' duration.
Tremeirchion
Tremeirchion is a small residential community in Denbighshire, Wales. It is located on the B5429 road, to the north east of Denbigh and to the west of St Asaph....
, Denbighshire
Denbighshire
Denbighshire is a county in north-east Wales. It is named after the historic county of Denbighshire, but has substantially different borders. Denbighshire has the distinction of being the oldest inhabited part of Wales. Pontnewydd Palaeolithic site has remains of Neanderthals from 225,000 years...
, Wales. It was the home of the Victorian poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
.
Origins
St Beuno's College in TremeirchionTremeirchion
Tremeirchion is a small residential community in Denbighshire, Wales. It is located on the B5429 road, to the north east of Denbigh and to the west of St Asaph....
, near St Asaph
St Asaph
St Asaph is a town and community on the River Elwy in Denbighshire, Wales. In the 2001 Census it had a population of 3,491.The town of St Asaph is surrounded by countryside and views of the Vale of Clwyd. It is situated close to a number of busy coastal towns such as Rhyl, Prestatyn, Abergele,...
in North Wales, UK, was built in 1848 as a place of study for Jesuits. It was built as a "theologate", a place where trainee priests study theology, along the lines of a small Oxbridge college. Up to this time prospective Jesuit priests studied in Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College
Stonyhurst College is a Roman Catholic independent school, adhering to the Jesuit tradition. It is located on the Stonyhurst Estate near the village of Hurst Green in the Ribble Valley area of Lancashire, England, and occupies a Grade I listed building...
, near Clitheroe
Clitheroe
Clitheroe is a town and civil parish in the Borough of Ribble Valley in Lancashire, England. It is 1½ miles from the Forest of Bowland and is often used as a base for tourists in the area. It has a population of 14,697...
in rural Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
and for a short time abroad, but the increasing numbers put a strain on the old buildings. In 1846 Fr Randal Lythgoe, the then Superior
Provincial superior
A Provincial Superior is a major superior of a religious order acting under the order's Superior General and exercising a general supervision over all the members of that order in a territorial division of the order called a province--similar to but not to be confused with an ecclesiastical...
of the Society of Jesus in Britain, while visiting a Jesuit parish at Holywell
Holywell
Holywell is the fifth largest town in Flintshire, North Wales, lying to the west of the estuary of the River Dee.-History:The market town of Holywell takes its name from the St Winefride's Well, a holy well surrounded by a chapel...
in Flintshire
Flintshire
Flintshire is a county in north-east Wales. It borders Denbighshire, Wrexham and the English county of Cheshire. It is named after the historic county of Flintshire, which had notably different borders...
, travelled to see some farm land that the Society owned near Tremeirchion, and immediately decided that this should be the site for a new theologate. In early Victorian days, when epidemics of typhoid and cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
regularly swept towns and cities killing large numbers, the fresh country air of North Wales was considered to provide a suitable environment in which to prepare young men to go and serve in the new industrial towns and cities. The dedication of the college – not to a traditional Jesuit saint but to a well-known local abbot, St Beuno
Beuno
Saint Beuno was a 7th-century Welsh holy man and Abbot of Clynnog Fawr in Gwynedd, on the Llŷn peninsula.-Life:Beuno was born in Powys, supposedly at Berriew, the grandson of a prince of that realm. After education and ordination in the monastery of Bangor-on-Dee in north-east Wales, he became an...
– is very unusual in the Society of Jesus.
Hansom the architect
The architect of the building was Joseph Aloysius HansomJoseph Hansom
Joseph Aloysius Hansom was a prolific English architect working principally in the Gothic Revival style, who invented the Hansom cab and was one of the founders of the eminent architectural journal, The Builder, in 1843....
, best known for the Hansom cab
Hansom cab
The hansom cab is a kind of horse-drawn cart designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom, an architect from York. The vehicle was developed and tested by Hansom in Hinckley, Leicestershire, England. Originally called the Hansom safety cab, it was designed to combine speed with safety, with a low...
. Outwardly the fine stone buildings give a grand impression; inside there are broad corridors and large but simple rooms. Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins
Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. was an English poet, Roman Catholic convert, and Jesuit priest, whose posthumous 20th-century fame established him among the leading Victorian poets...
, the Jesuit poet who studied at St Beuno's from 1874-77, described the building in a letter to his father: "It is built of limestone, decent outside, skimping within, Gothic like Lancing College
Lancing College
Lancing College is a co-educational English independent school in the British public school tradition, founded in 1848 by Nathaniel Woodard. Woodard's aim was to provide education "based on sound principle and sound knowledge, firmly grounded in the Christian faith." Lancing was the first of a...
done worse". St Beuno's incorporates features popular in Gothic buildings such as gargoyle
Gargoyle
In architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque, usually made of granite, with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between...
s and stone carvings.
Hansom's St Beuno's enclosed a quadrangle garden. On the west side of the quad there was a basement gallery containing the Recreation Room, a schoolroom, two private rooms and the Entrance Hall. On the floor above was the Library, which looks both inside and out as though it were a chapel (and is a chapel today), the Rector's Room and a "stranger's" room. On the south side, the tallest side, rising higher than the tower, were three galleries which housed the teachers and the students. On the north side was the refectory with a pulpit for the reader.
Within 20 years of its being built the College was too small: extra rooms in the attics were added and a new North Wing was built to the left of the Tower, all very much in keeping with Hansom's original design.
Environmental impact
In its early days the College could be said to have been environmentally friendly: heating for the lower floor was solar, at least in part, with the heat from the greenhouse below the West Front being channelled into the house. Fresh water was provided from local streams and kept in tanks, which still exist above the terraces, and food was grown locally both in the College's grounds and on the adjacent College Farm. And, though perhaps not so environmentally sound, the college had its own gas works. There was also a school built for local children.Tremeirchion Rood Cross
In 1862 the College was presented with a medieval cross by a Mr Hynde, who bought it for £5 from the Anglicans at Corpus Christi, Tremeirchion. The Tremeirchion Rood of Grace stood for 140 years on a plinth at the entrance to St Beuno's before being restored and then translated back to Tremeirchion churchyard as a Millennium gift. It now stands proudly under the yew under which in the mid 19th century it had been found buried.Rock Chapel
In 1866, what can best be described as a folly, the "Rock Chapel", was built on a wooded hill to the south of St Beuno's. This was designed by a Jesuit student, Ignatius Scoles, who had followed his father's footsteps and trained as an architect before joining the Jesuits to become a priest.Theologians move out - Tertians move in
The College remained as a theologate until 1926 when the students were moved to Heythrop College in OxfordshireOxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
. It then became a place of study for the last year of Jesuit training, the tertianship
Tertianship
Tertianship is the final formal period of formation in the Society of Jesus. The Provincial usually invites men to begin Tertianship three to five years after finishing Formation or Graduate Studies...
. During the Second World War it was a place of refuge to many Jesuit novices who were sent from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
during and after the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
. After the War it reverted to being a place of tertianship until 1980, although ten years earlier the house had begun to open to religious sisters on first 8-day and then 30-day retreats. During the 1970s, as those engaged in the tertianship became increasingly uneasy living in the countryside, the retreat work grew from strength to strength.
Only two very poor, unsympathetic additions have been made to the St Beuno's buildings since the 1870s - a brick-built ablution block and a boiler room.
Listed building
In 2002 St Beuno's was categorised as a Grade 2* listed building and a Welsh Historic Monument (Denbighshire CC, Record No. 26459). The listing characterises the building as of great architectural interest so that it cannot be altered without reference to the listed buildings authority, CadwCadw
-Conservation and Protection:Many of Wales's great castles and other monuments, such as bishop's palaces, historic houses, and ruined abbeys, are now in Cadw's care. Cadw does not own them but is responsible for their upkeep and for making them accessible to the public...
. As well as the building, the long flight of Welsh slate steps up the garden and the massive retaining wall there are also listed as being of architectural interest.
Today the house has a thriving programme of retreats all the year round, from weekends to 30 days. It also offers courses in Ignatian Spirituality
Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola
The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola, are a set of Christian meditations, prayers and mental exercises, divided into four thematic 'weeks' of variable length, designed to be carried out over a period of 28 to 30 days...
from one to six months' duration.