Nashdom

Nashdom, also known as Nashdom Abbey, is a former

country house and former Anglican Benedictine abbey in
Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England. Designed in Neo-
Georgian style by architect Edwin Lutyens, it is a Grade II*
listed building.[1] It was converted into apartments in 1997.
The gardens are Grade II listed in the National Register of
Historic Parks and Gardens.[2]

Contents
1 Country house
1.1 Owners
1.2 Architecture
2 Abbey
2.1 Origins
2.2 Life
2.3 Daughter priory
2.4 Relocation
3 Apartment complex
4 Gardens
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links

Country house
Owners

The name Nashdom is romanised Russian (Russian: Наш

дом, IPA: [naʂ dom]), meaning "our home".[3] Lutyens'
clients were Prince and Princess Dolgorouki.[2] Prince Alexis,
a son of Prince Serge Dolgorouki, was formerly the
chamberlain in the Russian court.[4] In 1898 he married
Frances, the only daughter and heiress of the Scottish
shipping magnate Fleetwood Pellew Wilson,[5] of
Wappenham Manor, Northamptonshire.[6] The couple's
British residences included Braemar Castle, Aberdeenshire,
and a house in Upper Grosvenor Street, London.[4]

The Princess wanted an additional residence, for royal

guests and house parties.[7] Lutyens visited the site in July
1905, thinking it beautiful but a very difficult one for the
Princess's ideal house,[8] which he thought would cost
£20,000. Her initial budget was only £6,000, and they finally
agreed on a design costing £15,000.[9] Sources differ on the
house's completion date, ranging from 1908,[7] to 1911.[1]

The Prince died, aged 68,[4] in June 1915. Thereafter, the

Princess lived in Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France, where she
died in August 1919, aged 69.[5] In her will, she left Nashdom
for the use of the Dolgorouki family, under the stewardship
of Serge Alexandrovitch Dolgorouki, aided by her executor,
Herbert Brisbane Ewart.[6]
Architecture

Lutyens built the house in Neo-Georgian

style, using whitewashed brick. It is one
of his earliest completely neoclassical
buildings. To accommodate the steeply
sloping site, he built a basement level
under the southwest half of the house.
[10]

The northwest, entrance front had an

Entrance, 1921
urban appearance, built tight against the
road.[11] Massive and austerely
neoclassical, it had at its centre a Doric colonnade giving
into the entrance porch, directly beyond which was, not the
main entrance door, but access via a wrought iron gate into a
semicircular courtyard.[10] Instead, the main door was inside
the porch on the left, giving access to the entrance hall. A
door in the porch on the right gave access to the service
quarters.[12]

The entrance hall contained two staircases. The main one,

straight ahead from the door and 12 feet (3.7 m) wide,[10] led
up to the Big Room, the main room for entertaining.[7] A
second staircase, at right angles to the first and 8 feet
(2.4 m) wide,[10] led towards the suite of rooms on the
garden front,[12] via a grand landing. The landing had a wind
dial on the wall, showing the wind direction superimposed on
a local map. It was connected to a weathervane on the roof.
[10]

The southeast, garden front was much less severe than the
entrance front, and has been called one of the most unusual
facades of any Georgian house.[11] Lutyens made extensive
use of green-shuttered sash windows,[12] spaced
exceptionally close together.[11] Along the garden front,
starting from the eastern end, were a loggia, the Big Room, a
circular drawing room fronted by a broad bow window, a
glass-domed hall known as the Winter Garden, a dining
room fronted by another bow window, and a smoking room.
The bow windows continued up the facade, and the circular
drawing room was surmounted by a circular bedroom.[12]
There was a semicircular dip in the centre of the facade,[11]
probably in order to let light into the glass dome.[10]

Abbey
Origins

The Anglican Benedictine community of Caldey Abbey,

Pembrokeshire, converted to Roman Catholicism in 1913,
with the exception of a small Anglican remnant, which
moved into Abbey House at Pershore Abbey,
Worcestershire.[13] The new community was formally
established in May 1914, though it had only one professed
monk and two oblates.[14] In 1915 the monk, Anselm Mardon,
converted to Rome and went back to Caldey.[15] Denys
Prideaux, one of the oblates, was appointed warden,[16] and
in 1922 became the first abbot.[17] The community soon
found itself in need of more space. The Dolgoroukis' agent,
Ewart, was a friend of the community, and alerted it to
Nashdom's availability. The community bought Nashdom in
May 1924 for £8,000,[18] and moved there in September
1926.[19]

Life

Nashdom Abbey was a centre of Anglican Papalism, and

used the Roman Rite. Its leading exponent in this was the
liturgical scholar Gregory Dix.[20] He joined the community in
1926, just before the move from Pershore, and in 1948
became prior. He died in 1952 and was buried in the abbey
cemetery.[21]

The composer and musicologist Anselm Hughes was

Nashdom's director of music, 1922–45, and prior, 1936–45.
He died at Nashdom in 1974.[22] Another member of the
community, Bernard Clements, became a broadcaster and
the vicar of All Saints, Margaret Street, London.[23]

Daughter priory

Main article: St. Gregory's Abbey, Three Rivers

In 1935, Nashdom started the training of a group of
American Episcopalians led by Paul Severance. In 1939, they
founded St Gregory's House, later known as St Gregory's
Priory, in Valparaiso, Indiana. In 1946 the priory moved to
Three Rivers, Michigan. It remained a dependency of
Nashdom until 1969, when it became St Gregory's Abbey.
[24]

Relocation

In 1987, the shrinking community left Nashdom for Elmore

Abbey, near Newbury, Berkshire, where they built an abbey
church, completed in 1995.[13] Justin Welby, who later
became the Archbishop of Canterbury, was a regular visitor
to the abbey from the early 1990s, and became an Anglican
Benedictine oblate in 2004.[25]

In September 2010 the remaining four monks moved again,

into the Principal's House of Sarum College, in the close of
Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire. In June 2011, they gained
planning permission to build an extension to the house,
including an oratory.[26]

Apartment complex
Nashdom and its outbuildings were converted into an
apartment complex in 1997. The house was turned into 15
apartments. Although the interior was much changed, the
 wind dial on the landing was kept,
together with a bust of Princess
Dolgorouki. The complex includes a
swimming pool, tennis court and gym.
[27]

Gardens
There are 4 hectares (9.9 acres) of
grounds, forming a long, south-pointing
The wind dial in 1921 triangle, with the house at the northern
end. The southeast, garden front of the
house overlooks the main lawn.[2] A massive retaining wall,
20 feet (6.1 m) high,[10] topped by a balustrade, runs along
the southwest edge of this lawn, with a great stone stairway
descending in two flights to the former west lawn, now a car
park. From the top of the stairway, a straight path (originally
stone terracing) runs southeast, along the top of the
retaining wall, and another runs northeast along the house's
garden front, leading to a circular, walled rose garden.[2]

From the main lawn, a central path, originally an avenue lined

with chestnuts, leads southwards into mixed woodland,
underplanted with rhododendrons. The small abbey
cemetery is among the trees.[2]

A number of Lutyens-designed features are Grade II listed

buildings, including the rose garden wall, a stable, a
gatehouse, and an alcove at the northern end of the former
chestnut avenue.[2]

Notes
1. ^ a b Historic England. "Nashdom (1332673)". National
Heritage List for England. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
2. ^ a b c d e f Historic England. "Nashdom Abbey
(1000606)". National Heritage List for England.
Retrieved 16 May 2016.
3. Dunstan (2009), p. 64.
4. ^ a b c "Death Of Prince Alexis Dolgorouki. Chamberlain
to the Tsar". The Times. London. 2 July 1915. p. 11.
5. ^ a b "Death Of Princess Dolgorouki". The Times.
London. 27 August 1919. p. 13.
6. ^ a b "Bequests by a Princess". The Times. London. 8
February 1920. p. 13.
7. ^ a b c Amery and Richardson (1981), pp. 121–2.
8. Brown (1982), p. 168.
9. Brown (1982), p. 159.
10. ^ a b c d e f g Butler(1984), pp. 36–7.
11. ^ a b c d Goldberger, Paul (14 April 1985). "Building on
History". New York Times. New York. Retrieved 16 May
2016.
12. ^ a b c d Pevsner, Williamson and Brandwood (1994),
pp. 210–1.
13. ^ a b Beattie (1997), p. 105.
14. Dunstan (2009), p. 25.
15. Dunstan (2009), p. 31.
16. Dunstan (2009), p. 36.
17. Dunstan (2009), p. 46.
18. Dunstan (2009), pp. 64–6.
19. Dunstan (2009), p. 73.
20. Jones, Simon in Dix (2007), p. xii of Introduction.
21. Green, H. Benedict. "Dix, George Eglinton Alston [name
in religion Gregory Dix]". Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press.
doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/32835. (Subscription or UK public
library membership required.)
22. Humphries and Evans (1997), p. 173.
23. Rees (2000), pp. 28–30.
24. Beattie (1997), p. 171.
25. Atherstone, Andrew (5 March 2013). "From dodging
bullets to St Benedict's Rule" (PDF). Church Times.
London. p. 16. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
26. Ross, Corey (27 June 2011). "Monks can stay".
Salisbury Journal. Salisbury. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
27. Wilson, Mary (1 June 1997). "Country address that
flatters". The Sunday Times. London. p. 15[S3].

References
Amery, Colin; Richardson, Margaret (1981). Lutyens:
The Work of the English Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens
(1869–1944). London: Arts Council of Great Britain.
ISBN 0-7287-0304-1.
Beattie, Gordon (1997). Gregory's Angels. Leominster:
Gracewing. ISBN 0-85244-3862.
Brown, Jane (1982). Gardens of a Golden Afternoon.
The Story of a Partnership: Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude
Jekyll. London: Allen Lane. ISBN 0-7139-1440-8.
Butler, A. S. G. (2003). The Domestic Architecture of Sir
Edwin Lutyens. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club.
ISBN 1-85149-100-7.
Dix, Gregory (2007). The Shape of the Liturgy. London:
Continuum. ISBN 978-0-8264-7942-6.
Dunstan, Petà (2009). The Labour of Obedience: The
Benedictines of Pershore, Nashdom and Elmore - a
History. Norwich: Canterbury Press. ISBN 978-1-85311-
974-3.
Humphreys, Maggie; Evans, Robert (1997). "Hughes,
Dom Anselm". Dictionary of Composers for the Church
in Great Britain and Ireland. London: Mansell. ISBN 0-
7201-2330-5.
Pevsner, Nikolaus; Williamson, Elizabeth; Brandwood,
Geoffrey K. (1994). The Buildings of England:
Buckinghamshire. London: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-
071062-0.
Rees, Daniel (2000). "Anglican Monasticism". In
Johnston, William M. (ed.). Encyclopedia of
Monasticism. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. ISBN 1-
 57958-090-4.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nashdom.

Official website

Coordinates: 51°33′00″N 0°40′29″W