Island Life Magazine Ltd December 2007/January 2008 | Page 30

life

JUNE ELFORD

Quarr Abbey
By James Kerr

Q

uarr Abbey is a monastery
near Binstead that is home to
Benedictine monks who seek
to live a life centred on the worship
of God, work, prayer and fellowship.
The original medieval abbey of Quarr
now lies in ruins, but the modern abbey
continues the monastic way of life today.
Baldwin de Redvers, Lord of the Isle
of Wight, granted land near the north
shore of the Island for the construction
of a monastery in 1131. The abbey was
founded from Savigny in France, but later

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became part of the Cistercian order. Quarr
Abbey was probably named after the
quarries that surrounded the site, which
provided stone from which the first abbey
was built. By the Middle Ages, stone
from these quarries was being used in the
construction of many buildings, including
Chichester Cathedral and Beaulieu Abbey.
The medieval monks of Quarr engaged
in many activities. Doves were kept and
carp were bred in the estate’s ponds, and
were transported live to London markets.
The abbey owned land all over the Island,

which provided ideal grazing land for
sheep. By the 16th century, the Island
had gained a reputation for the quality
of its wool, which was in high demand by
clothing manufacturers on the mainland.
In 1536, when Henry VIII confiscated
the property of monasteries throughout
the land, the abbey was dissolved.
Local people pleaded for it to be saved,
demonstrating how much it had done
to relieve the hardships of the poor of
the Island. But within four years of the
dissolution, the abbey church had been

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