The remaining monks at Downside are moving to Buckfast Abbey this month and on Monday, 7th March, Midsomer Norton Town Council

presented Dom Michael Clothier with a painting of the town by local artist, Roger Jones.

Father Michael thanked Councillors for their kindness. He explained that where there had once been sixty monks living at the monastery in Stratton on the Fosse, there are now around eight, so a move had been inevitable.

Downside has been home to centuries of Benedictine heritage and until 2019, had close links with Downside School, with the two now run as separate trusts. The school distanced itself after a former monk was jailed in 2012 for five years for sexually abusing two boys in the late 1980s. Four monks faced police action and two others had restrictions imposed on their ministry.

The Abbey has been working hard ever since to restore its reputation within the community, which included public open events, talks and access to the incredible heritage resource of the monastery library, which includes a large collection of Vatican state papers. There are some 500,000 volumes of books in monks’ collection, of which 10% are considered to be rare, pre-1801.

For those interested in print, the monastic community of Downside has continuously produced books from its inception in 1606 until the present day, although physical press publications ceased on site in the 1960s and are now printed externally. A Journal, The Downside Review, has been published since 1880 and has featured some of the finest scholars.

A former resident of the monastery has also been the subject of a book, Wales’ Unknown Hero: Soldier, Spy, Monk, which documents Dom Joseph Coombe-Tennant’s life as an escaped WWII prisoner of war, his work as a Special Operations Executive and later with MI6.

The monks will now live as the Community of St Gregory the Great at Southgate House, in the grounds of Buckfast Abbey, Devon, which has been described as a temporary move to give space for consideration to a permanent new home.