Visit to Gorton Abbey 27.3.09
We visited this this building which was originally built as a Friary in 1861 when some Friars cane over from Belgium and a couple of them went to Ireland to learn English, no doubt they returned with a most interesting accent. A young man named Patrick joined them from Ireland and set about helping to build this Parish Church whilst occupying a cottage in the ground.
Tony Hurley, who was our guide, enthralled us with stories from the past on each step of our journey through this beautiful building which is being re-furbished with the help of Lottery Funds and local donations.
When the Friary ceased, the building was bought by a developer, who systematically stripped it of the wonderful valuable artifacts and then went bust, abandoning the Friary to the elements and vandals. Fortunately the Bank which had owned the building had boarded up the three strained glass windows behind the alter, which was reduced to rubble, and the windows were intact when re-furbishing was put in hand.
The crucifix which is life size and is suspended from above in front of the alter was rescued from a Christies' sale at a price and during renovation was found to have the ends of the cross missing. Some years before, a member of the local community had contacted the restorers and handed to them some - bits of metal - and these were found to be the missing parts of the cross.
There were originally six statues on each side of the main body of the church standing on top of the columns and again, these were rescued from auction at a cost and are currently be repaired but hopefully will soon be atop their columns again.
The amount of restoration is quite amazing and there are photos of before and after the rescue showing the vast amount of work already completed.
The acoustics of the building means that it is now used for orchestral concerts and choirs and Tony Hurley played a CD of The Priests singing Ave Maria and announced they were prepared to give a concert in the near future.
We rounded off the visit with a drink and sandwiches, thanks to Mary and during the visit, we all enjoyed Ann's very detailed descriptions of the architecture and restored sections which have been carried out to the highest degree.
Our thanks to our guide and staff and Mary, Ann and all volunteers for a most memorable visit to a truly magnificent building.
posted by Elaine Gallagher
Tony Hurley, who was our guide, enthralled us with stories from the past on each step of our journey through this beautiful building which is being re-furbished with the help of Lottery Funds and local donations.
When the Friary ceased, the building was bought by a developer, who systematically stripped it of the wonderful valuable artifacts and then went bust, abandoning the Friary to the elements and vandals. Fortunately the Bank which had owned the building had boarded up the three strained glass windows behind the alter, which was reduced to rubble, and the windows were intact when re-furbishing was put in hand.
The crucifix which is life size and is suspended from above in front of the alter was rescued from a Christies' sale at a price and during renovation was found to have the ends of the cross missing. Some years before, a member of the local community had contacted the restorers and handed to them some - bits of metal - and these were found to be the missing parts of the cross.
There were originally six statues on each side of the main body of the church standing on top of the columns and again, these were rescued from auction at a cost and are currently be repaired but hopefully will soon be atop their columns again.
The amount of restoration is quite amazing and there are photos of before and after the rescue showing the vast amount of work already completed.
The acoustics of the building means that it is now used for orchestral concerts and choirs and Tony Hurley played a CD of The Priests singing Ave Maria and announced they were prepared to give a concert in the near future.
We rounded off the visit with a drink and sandwiches, thanks to Mary and during the visit, we all enjoyed Ann's very detailed descriptions of the architecture and restored sections which have been carried out to the highest degree.
Our thanks to our guide and staff and Mary, Ann and all volunteers for a most memorable visit to a truly magnificent building.
posted by Elaine Gallagher
posted by elaine at 10:46 AM
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