Carisbrooke Priory

After a few days at or near the seaside, we thought it time to venture into the interior, as far as Carisbrooke, for a long time the military centre of the island. But not to the castle, rather to the relatively modern priory just below the castle on the southeastern side. With the view from a handy bench by the front door included above. With a passing motorcyclist just about visible below the virgin in the gate, and with the castle invisible beyond the gate.

The now vanished first foundation was somewhere near the church, in the village of Carisbrooke, and this second foundation, one of many works of the Countess of Clare, a very rich convert (in middle life) from Ireland, ran from 1866 until 1989. The nuns, apart from prayer, were mainly into craft work, in particular the manufacture of ecclesiastical vestments, the sort of thing you can still buy from the ecclesiastical outfitter just to the south of Westminster Abbey, probably in the vicinity of Great College Street. Another of her works was St. Mary's church in Ryde, the first proper Catholic church on the island, last noticed at reference 3, although not visited on that particular occasion. She must have been very rich indeed and taken a lot of those riches out of Ireland, but perhaps she was forgiven on account of her conversion to the true faith (of Rome).

The priory now functions as a sort of general purpose religious centre, plus arts and crafts, plus a good chunk of the accommodation given over to the Salvation Army, who I think use it as a half way house for young people with problems.

The small chapel houses, inter alia, the piano noticed at reference 4. Next to that was a large collection of secondhand books for sale, nearly all faith books, so not of much interest to myself. Next to that was the cafeteria offering, again inter alia, tea and substantial slices of cake.

Arts and crafts somewhere nearby, again not of much interest to myself, and from there we strolled into the rather derelict, but still pleasant, gardens. A good supply of benches.

The back of the chapel. And at the bottom of the garden, there was a small graveyard, presumably for the nuns, but with the complication that there were two sorts of gravestone, one on the left, another on the right. Perhaps one sort was for the nuns and the other sort was for their lay helpers.

And a drain cover from Dibben of Newport.

Bing turns up a range, date not supplied, made by the same people. So perhaps they really were a foundry, not just a builders' merchant who brought in personalised drain covers from somewhere up north, then the land of the real metal bashers. Google turns up rather more island Dibbens, including both the one above and one Jill Dibben, partner in the Perfectly Posh Laundry of Sandown. Clearly a family which has survived. I think that the laundry, should you need one, is to be found at reference 8 below, having dropped the 'Perfectly' bit along the way.

From there to the regular church at Carisbrooke, after working out that we did not have to pay for a short visit to the village car park. A church with a very large west door through into the tower.

And an old, if rather spartan interior. A place which did not seem to have much life left in it.

Some masonic evidence of change over the years. But old, as my understanding, such as it is, is that the style of decoration of the larger, right hand column in Norman. No doubt one of the house detectives you get on television would be able to explain it all for me. We also had the piano noticed at reference 5, not as grand as that at reference 4.

Perhaps the house detective would be able to work this one out as well. A relationship with Sheen(e) Priory of reference 6 in the fifteenth century, East Sheen being the place in west London where BH spent much of the first half of her childhood, then a relationship with Queen's College Oxford starting in the seventeenth century, the days when many of our country parsons were Oxbridge men. And when, I seem to recall, that fellows there were required to be parsons. 

The rather muddled exterior, snapped from the southwest. Tower left, lady chapel right.

And so to the Eight Bells for lunch, an establishment which rather reminded me of the Twisted Oak, a house in Exeter which earned a brief mention at reference 7. Doing quite a good trade for a weekday lunchtime, most of it looking local. And I dare say they do a roaring roast business for families on Sundays. But with a website which my laptop judges suspect, so not included below. I took something described as Asian beef with rice and crackers, which served well enough - although I had forgotten how sticky prawn crackers can be.

The mill pond (or some such) at the bottom of the garden.

Probably the pond directly above the 'M' for the museum in Carisbrooke Castle, snapped above from the Ordnance Survey. The purple pin defied my attempts to remove it, despite being given the option.

Back through Newport, where we were able to admire several raised pavements, and managing (for once) to get onto the right road back to Brading, the one that takes us past the seamark on Ashey Down.

A quick visit to Tesco's for one of their white bloomers and where we were pleased to find a souvenir of Epsom. That is to say a photographic booth from Blenheim Road on the Longmead industrial estate.

PS: some days later, I happened to be turning the pages of the Fiona MacCarthy biography of Eric Gill noticed at reference 9, when I came across a reference in the introduction to newly acquired material held by the Dominican Archive of Carisbrooke, presumably then held at this very Priory. Google turns up reference 10, from which I learn the archive went to Edinburgh in 1989, the very year that MacCarthy wrote her book. I wonder now how she knew that it held something of interest to her.

References

Reference 1: https://carisbrookepriory.org.uk/.

Reference 2: https://iow-chs.org/island-people/life-of-elizabeth-countess-of-clare-foundress-of-st-marys-church-ryde/.

Reference 3: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/interior-ryde.html.

Reference 4: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/piano-74.html.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/07/piano-75.html.

Reference 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheen_Priory.

Reference 7: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2023/05/licensed-dining-in-far-west.html.

Reference 8: http://www.poshlaundry.co.uk/.

Reference 9: https://psmv3.blogspot.com/2018/08/gill.html.

Reference 10: https://castrial.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/catholic_archives_2003.pdf.