Stanbrook Abbey - I

I intend to write a second post this afternoon.. It's hard to have anything other than divided feelings about the sale of Stanbrook Abbey in Worcestershire. It was originally on the market as early as 2003, maybe the year before that, for £6 million. Three sales fell through before it was finally sold last August to Clarenco LLP, a conglomerate of Property Purchasers based in Buckinghamshire, and who have a section advertised as 'Amazing Retreats'. (More about this later)It's not been easy to find out the exact amount that the group paid for Stanbrook, but piecing together other financial details that have been made public, it seems to have been sold for 4 million pounds sterling. This will enable the nuns, who moved to North Yorkshire in May 2009, to finish paying for the first building phase of their new ecological monastery. This leaves them with another 4 Million pounds to raise before remaining phases can begin, that is for their Church, Library and Guest accommodation.

To most ordinary folk, the purchase of land and the building of an architect designed property into which one moves before one's old property has been sold, seems a somewhat risky way of going about things. As it was it seems that the nuns are about 2 million short on their originally hoped-for financial calcultions. If they had professional financial advice, well, one wonders.......

Before going further, I want to let the nuns speak for themselves and will link you to a video showing the new Monastery. This gives me a break to prepare Sunday lunch. I'll be back later.