Stanbrook Abbey
Stanbrook Abbey is an abbey originally built as a contemplative house for Benedictine nuns. It was founded in 1625 in Cambrai, Flanders, then part of the Spanish Netherlands, under the auspices of the English Benedictine Congregation. After being deprived of their abbey during the French Revolution the surviving nuns fled to England and in 1838 settled in Stanbrook, Worcestershire, where a new abbey was built. The English Benedictine congregation later re-located to Wass in the North York Moors National Park. The Worcestershire property is currently operational as an events venue, and is owned by Clarenco LLP.
The chief foundress was 17-year-old Helen More, professed as Sister Gertrude More, who was great-great-granddaughter of St Thomas More; her father, Cresacre More, provided the original endowment for the foundation of the monastery. She eventually became Dame Gertrude More. The English Benedictine mystical writer Dom Augustine Baker trained the young nuns in a tradition of contemplative prayer which survives to the present (as of 2007). Solemnly professed Benedictine nuns are always called "Dame", as Benedictine monks are called "Dom". They are not Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
In 1793, during the French Revolution, the 22 nuns were ejected from their original house and imprisoned in Compiègne for 18 months, during which time four nuns died from the harsh conditions. The survivors returned destitute to England and, with the encouragement of Dom Augustine Lawson, eventually settled in 1838 at Stanbrook Hall, Callow End (52°08′50″N 2°14′34″W / 52.1473°N 2.2428°W), near Malvern, Worcestershire, in the Severn Valley.
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