St Hugh's Charterhouse

St. Hugh's Charterhouse

Monastery information
Other names	Parkminster
Order	Carthusian
Established	1873
Mother house	Grande Chartreuse, Isère, France
Dedicated to	Hugh of Lincoln
Architecture
Heritage designation	Grade II* listed
Site
Location	Parkminster, near Cowfold, Horsham, West Sussex, England
Coordinates	50°58′22.84″N 0°16′57.85″W
Public access	Only to chapel

St Hugh's Charterhouse, Parkminster is the only post-Reformation Carthusian monastery in the United Kingdom. It is located in the parish of Cowfold, West Sussex, England.

The monastery was founded in 1873, when the property formerly known as Picknoll was acquired for its construction in order to accommodate two houses of French Carthusians in exile. Building took place between 1876 and 1883 to designs by a French architect, Clovis Normand, who had at his disposal a generous budget. The number of monks has varied: 30 in 1883, 70 in 1928, 22 in 1984 and there are currently 26 monks as of January 2017

The buildings are in a French Gothic Revival style described by some as "weak", although Pevsner's judgement was that "The plan is magnificent and can only be properly seen from the air". The church has relics of Saint Hugh of Lincoln, Saint Boniface and the Virgin Mary; and an unusually tall (203 ft) spire. It stands in the centre of buildings including a library with a collection of rare books and manuscripts and a chapter house decorated with images of the martyrdom of the monks' predecessors.

The Great Cloister, more than a 115 metres long and one of the largest in the world, connects the 34 hermitages to the church and the other buildings, embracing four acres of orchards and the monastic burial ground.

It is a Grade II* listed building.

See also

• Abbeys and priories in England
• List of Carthusian monasteries
• List of monasteries dissolved by Henry VIII of England
• List of places of worship in Horsham (district)

Further reading

• Robin Bruce Lockhart, Half-way to Heaven: The Hidden Life of the Sublime Carthusians (London: Thames Methuen, 1985)
• Nancy Klein Maguire, "An Infinity of Little Hours: Five Young Men and Their Trial of Faith in the Western World's Most Austere Monastic Order" (roman à clef, = novel based on real-life stories) (New York: PublicAffairs Books 2006, a division of Perseus Publishing, ISBN hardback ISBN 978-1-58648-327-2, paperback 978-1-58648-432-3)

External sources

• Official website