Buckfast Abbey Side Alter

Thank you all for your great Comments votes and awards on the Tiger yesterday, this is a side Alter at Buckfast Abbey, to think the Monks built this themselves is amazing! At the moment the Abbey is going through extensive cleaning so scaffolding inside and outside, off in the morning to photograph some animals with a few EPZs back on Saturday, 8 images taken and blended in Photomatix Pro, below some info on this beautiful Abbey.

Buckfast Abbey

Founded October 28, 1882
Buckfast Abbey forms part of an active Benedictine monastery at Buckfast, near Buckfastleigh, Devon, England. Dedicated to Saint Mary, it was founded in 1018 and run by the Cistercian order from 1147 until it was destroyed under the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1882 monks began living there again, and today it is a Benedictine foundation.

Buckfast Abbey was founded by Earl Aylward in the reign of King Cnut in 1018. In 1147 it became a Cistercian abbey and was rebuilt in stone. In medieval times, the abbey became rich through fishing and trading in sheep wool, although the Black Death killed two abbots and many monks — by 1377 there were only fourteen monks at Buckfast.

On 25 February 1539, William Petre arrived at Buckfast and declared the abbey to be dissolved by order of King Henry VIII. The monks were compelled to leave and the buildings were looted and destroyed. The abbey then stood in ruins for over two hundred years.
The nave of the Abbey church is in a mixture of Romanesque and Gothic styles
19th century: rebuilding

On 28 October 1882, six Benedictine monks arrived at Buckfast having been exiled from France. The land had been leased by monks from the St. Augustine's Priory in Ramsgate and it was later bought for £4,700. The first new abbot was Boniface Natter, who died at sea in 1906, when the SS Sirio was shipwrecked. His travelling companion Anscar Vonier became the next abbot and pledged to fulfill his dying wish, namely to rebuild the abbey.

The monks lived among the ruins and gradually rebuilt the abbey church upon the foundations of the abbey constructed in 1147. The church itself was restored between 1905 and 1937. Over the thirty-two years, there were never more than six monks working on the project at any one time, although the whole community had repaired the ancient foundations up to ground level. Construction methods were primitive — wooden scaffolding was held together by ropes and no safety protection was worn by the monks. One monk fell 50 feet but survived; and three monks fell off a hoist without serious injury in 1931. Construction continued throughout World War I: some of the monks were of German nationality, but were not sent to an internment camp, on condition that they remained confined to the Abbey grounds.

The Abbey was consecrated on 25 August 1932, but the building was finally finished with the laying of the last stone in late 1937

Camera:	Nikon D300S Check out Nikon Nation!
Lens:	12.0-24.0 mm f/4.0
Recording media:	RAW (digital)
Date Taken:	15 Sep 2012 - 5:05 PM
Focal Length:	15mm
Aperture:	f/6.7
Shutter Speed:	0.3sec
ISO:	100

Title:	Buckfast Abbey Side Alter
Username:	achieverswales
Uploaded:	19 Sep 2012 - 10:01 PM
Tags:	Architecture, Buckfast abbey, Cistercian, Hdr, History, Monks, St mary
Votes:	36