Feature Article

For Sale: monuments to past glory

All over the country religious institutions are having to decide between maintaining large and costly seminaries, monasteries and retreat houses or selling them to concentrate funds on their mission work. But getting permission for change of use has stalled plans for many organisations

The high altar is daubed with graffiti and the nave cluttered with debris. Moss and weeds blanket the floor, and spray-paint murals creep along the walls. The dank and gloomy air is leavened only by the shafts of light pouring down through holes torn in the roof.

This is the former St Peter?s Seminary, Cardross, near Dumbarton. Designed by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia, and influenced by Le Corbusier, it was built just 40 years ago by the Archdiocese of Glasgow. Seen by some as a priceless modern architectural gem, it has failed to find a new use, or a new owner, since it closed for want of seminarians 25 years ago. The plight of St Peter?s represents the worst fears of the many communities which, through falling numbers and rising losses, must find a new use for their seminaries, monasteries, schools or retreat houses.

Another modern treasure seeking a new owner is the Benedictine Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire. In Suffolk, the Sisters of the Assumption are selling Hengrave Hall. St Joseph?s College, mother house of the Mill Hill Missionaries in north London, is empty, the student residences leased out. The remains of the founder, Cardinal Herbert Vaughan, have been disinterred and reburied at Westminster Cathedral. The community will leave St Joseph?s as soon as possible, and this property, too, will be seeking a new purpose.

For some, it is not difficult to find a new use, but it is rarely a religious one. The Jesuits? former pre-seminary at Campion House in Isleworth, west London, has been closed since last year. Try Homes has bought the site for about ?5 million, and plans to build private housing on it. Also in Isleworth, Nazareth House, once an orphanage, is subject to a planning application to turn it into a nursing home. In every case, the dilemma is the same. With numbers dwindling, the hard decision must be made to direct funds either towards maintenance or towards mission. Understandably ? and inevitably ? mission must take precedence. And selling might be the only way to serve that mission.

There are those who believe that a social use ought to be found. The charity Housing Justice, which describes itself as ?the national voice of Christian action to prevent homelessness and bad housing?, is among them. A spokesman said: ?These houses could potentially be a rich source of much-needed social housing. It?s much better than that they become expensive loft-style accommodation.?

Sr Christine Charlwood of the Sisters of the Assumption said that a combination of reduced numbers and mounting costs had made the sale of Hengrave Hall unavoidable. Acknowledged as a prize of early-Tudor architecture, the house was run by the sisters as a school for 25 years, then, with an ecumenical community, as a conference and retreat centre for five years. It was bought by the order for around ?30,000 in 1952 and is now on the market for ?4m. The house is unlikely to find a social use, because of its value and Grade-I listing.

?It?s incredibly beautiful, and we have had 50 glorious years here,? said Sr Christine. ?We don?t know what it will be used for because we haven?t yet had any offers, but we are an international order with a focus on education, and ecumenical in thrust, and the funds will go into our work elsewhere; it might be in the inner cities or overseas.? Often, the only viable alternative use is private housing. At the Benedictines? Douai Abbey in Berkshire, work has started on converting the former school, which closed in 1999, into 33 apartments. A further mix of 44 houses and flats will be built in the grounds. Of the total, 16 units will be social housing.

Douai?s bursar, Dom Oliver Holt, said: ?We must have lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in the 10 or 20 years before we closed. We went down various avenues in our search for a new use. We had interest from schools, health care, a conference centre, but they all faded away, and that left residential development. Some communities have to leave altogether, but we are staying put. We shall be refurbishing the monastery, and building a new refectory, a library and extra guest accommodation.?

At Campion House, the Jesuits have undergone a similar process. Fr Kevin Fox, province treasurer, said they tried to find an alternative use that the Jesuits could administer themselves, but to no avail. ?One possibility was converting it into a health-care centre for retired members of the province, which has been planned for the past three or four years, but that will now be in Boscombe in Bournemouth. ?In latter years, those at Campion House tried hard to find alternative uses: retreats, adult education, training for lay ministry, but for all of these the site was too big and it was always struggling economically.?

At St Peter?s, Cardross, the Archdiocese of Glasgow applied for planning permission for housing in 1999, but it was rejected. In a new application, the plan is to make the building safe, lay on services and hence make it easier to find a new user. The large, archdiocese-owned estate surrounding the seminary would go to a trust, and opened to the public.

For eight years, Ken Crilly, development director for the Archdiocese, has struggled to solve the problem. He has been thwarted in part by those who believe this modernist building is a gem that cannot be subjected to the alterations which conversion into homes would involve. Mr Crilly says: ?Our plan at present is to make it safe, remove the debris, put in gas, water and drainage services, do repairs to the listed bridges on the estate, and tee it up ready for a new end-user. We are working with Historic Scotland to devise a strategy to bring the estate back to use and make the seminary building a safe place to visit.? He does not share the view that the building is a gem: ?There were problems with it from day one. It leaked, it was oil fired and very expensive to heat, it was noisy; a lot of students hated it. So we say, ?If it is so marvellous, then fine ? you try studying in it or living in it.? We have tried hard to find an alternative use. But it?s impractical. It?s in the Green Belt, which makes housing difficult, and for a school it?s too far out. We would like to solve this problem and then get on with saving souls, which is what we are supposed to be doing.?

At Prinknash, built 33 years ago near Stroud, Gloucestershire, 14 members of the order live in an abbey designed to accommodate 60. Once it is leased off, they plan to return to a sixteenth-century manor house on the 300-acre estate. Fr Martin McLaughlin, the bursar, said that the decision to move had been made to consolidate the community?s resources and ?revitalise its traditional life of prayer, work and hospitality?. He is anxious that housing should not be the only answer. ?We are very optimistic and there is no lack of interest. Already in the past week we have had serious enquiries. Our preferred option is to find an alternative religious use. That?s not as fanciful as it may sound. While orders in this country are declining or holding their own there are others overseas that are growing, in the USA especially, so there is the opportunity for use as a seminary or a religious community. That?s the easiest; you don?t need change of use. Failing that, we would go for inspirational use; religious-based good work, a retreat, perhaps, or a self-help centre for drug rehabilitation. Third is commercial use, which we hope we won?t need to resort to, and if we do, we would lease rather than sell. We will leave our options open, and keep in control.?

It would be wonderful if the monks at Prinknash buck the trend and find a new religious use; but as the damp drips down the walls of the modern ruin of St Peter?s in Cardross, where arson, an illegal rave and the theft of the newly erected security fences are just three of the causes of recent headaches for Ken Crilly, you have to be something of an optimist to believe it will happen.

Richard Abbott is a freelance journalist.