Caldey Island

... From "Visitor’s Guide to Caldey Island"

Caldey Monastry

During the 10th century the settlements along the Pembrokeshire coast were terrorised by the Norsemen and the name Caldey, or Cold Island, derives from this period.

Image by: Rik Wilson

by Alan Shepherd

September 08, 2006

Caldey lies some 3 miles from Tenby harbour. It is 1½ miles long, a little under ¼ mile wide, with an area of approx. 550 acres.

In prehistoric times the island was joined to the mainland by a low marshy area. With the encroachment of the sea this has become Caldey Sound, where the depth of the water now varies from 40 - 65 feet. The northern side of the island, facing Tenby, and St Margaret's is composed of grey carboniferous limestone, while the southern portion, from Sandtop Bay - Drinkim Bay is red sandstone.

Monks of one sort or another have lived and worked on Caldey for 1,500 years. The original Welsh name of Ynys Pyr, the island of Pyro, preserves the name of the first Abbot from the 6th century. During the 10th century the settlements along the Pembrokeshire coast were terrorised by the Norsemen and the name Caldey, or Cold Island, derives from this period.

The early history of the island dates back to 8,000BC. Human remains, early flint tools and the bones of animals long extinct in Britain, have been excavated by one of the monks. In 1113, Henry I of England made a gift of the island to Robert Fitzmartin, a Norman nobleman, who promptly gave it to his mother Geva. In 1136 it was given to the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of Tiron in France, who had already founded an abbey at St Dogmael's near Cardigan. Their new priory was built on the site of Pyro's earlier primitive monastic settlement. It was a building of great strength, and is still largely intact today. Nearby the island stream was channelled into a series of ponds, and a little further downstream the water was used for turning a small corn mill. At the same time the round stone Watch Tower above Priory Bay was built. From here the Priory, with its own considerable defences, could be forewarned of approaching danger.

In 1536 Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries, and the Benedictines were expelled from Caldey. John Bradshaw of Presteigne became the new owner. In 1597 ownership passed to Walter Philpin, Mayor of Tenby in 1601, and he in turn sold it to Reeve Williams and Robert Williams in 1653. The Earl of Warwick next bought the island for £3,000 in 1786, and twelve years later it was sold to one of its most illustrious owners Thomas Kynaston of Pembroke. Kynaston built a handsome mansion in the grounds of the priory, and probably added many of the farm buildings which are in existence today. From the outset it was Kynaston's intention to exploit the fine Caldey limestone to take advantage of the current boom in building and road making. There were already four old quarries in existence, but the Kynaston family developed a huge new quarry at High Cliff from which eventually 20,000 tons of limestone per year were exported. James Hawkesley purchased the island for £15,950 in 1867. Hawkesley was young, intelligent and enthusiastically embraced the new, more scientific approach to agriculture which was then emerging. By all accounts he was a fair and extremely popular employer. Under his guidance the emphasis of the island farm changed from stock breeding to market gardening. Vast greenhouses, heated by steam, were built, and water for irrigation was pumped by steam engine from the well house to a storage tank, near the present day lighthouse. It then returned by gravitation to the gardens and the farm. To transport his produce to market Hawkesley bought a 75 ton ketch which traded with Swansea and Pembroke, as well as Tenby. A High Sheriff of Pembrokeshire and an Alderman of Tenby he died in 1891 at the early age of 52. It is reported that when news of his death reached the men working in the quarries, they immediately laid down their tools and made their way home as a mark of respect.

In 1894 the island passed briefly into the hands of Thomas Smith Cunninghame who bought it for £12,750 before disposing of it for £12,000 in 1897. The new owner was the Reverend Done Bushell, senior maths teacher, housemaster and subsequently Chaplain at Harrow, the famous public school. Bushell, who had ten children, bought Caldey as a holiday home and for the benefit of his mentally handicapped son whom he felt needed to be protected from an unfriendly world. During the relatively short period of his ownership this scholarly man undertook a costly programme of renovation on the Old Priory, St Illtud's and St Davids Churches.

In 1906 the island was sold to an Anglican Benedictine Brotherhood under Dom Aelred Carlyle, once again at a heavy loss to the previous owner. Carlyle, who appears to have been a rather awkward character, lacking in business acumen, immediately set about a vast building programme. Further restoration was carried out at the Priory Church. A guest house, now St Philomena's, was built, together with a row of small workmen's cottages on top of the low cliff above the village. A shop, club room and the houses known as Ty Gwyn and Ty Mair were also constructed. The present monastery was built between 1910 and 1913 using stone brought by tramway from High Cliff quarry. Here Carlyle had invested in expensive equipment, and in a new jetty for loading ships. In 1913 Dom Aelred and 22 of his monks were received into the Catholic Church, and in 1914 he was appointed Abbot. At about the same time, on the outbreak of World War I, the first detachment of coastguards arrived on the island. Dom Aelred resigned his office in 1921, and seven years later the Benedictines moved to Prinknash, near Gloucester. In 1925 the island was sold, to the present order of Reformed Cistercians, and in January 1929 the advance party of monks from the Abbey of Chimay in Belgium settled into residence.

The Cistercian Order was founded in France in 1098 by St Robert, the Abbot of Molesme who led a group of breakaway monks to the marshlands of Citeaux, near Dijon in Burgundy. This group of pious and dedicated Christians was determined to return to the basic monastic ‘rule' envisaged by the Rule of St Benedict and to shed some of the more worldly influences which they felt were detracting from the quality of monastic life in many of their sister monasteries. The Latin for Citeaux is Cistercium and hence they became known as Cistercians. St Robert was followed in quick succession as Abbot by St Alberic and St Stephen Harding, an Englishman. During the 12th century the driving force behind the rapid growth of the new order was a young nobleman, St Bernard, Cistercian Abbot of Clairvaux (1112-53). By the time he died in 1153 his community alone had founded an amazing 68 new monasteries all over Europe. Two of these were in Wales - in 1131 at Tintern, and in 1140 at Little Treffgarne, just north of Haverfordwest.

By the time Henry VIII suppressed the monasteries in the early 16th century, the Cistercian Order had created 75 monasteries in England, 11 in Scotland and 13 in Wales. Most of these monasteries were located in remote rural areas where the monks became skilled agronomists and often led the way in innovative farming techniques. These communities also tended to become oases of learning, with extensive collections of early books and their own hand-copied and beautifully illuminated vellum manuscripts. After the Reformation in Britain most of the plundered monasteries fell into ruins and the monks were scattered.

The next two centuries saw the birth of several reform movements throughout Europe. The best known is that initiated at the Abbey of La Trappe in Normandy. Here the reforming zeal of the monks led to the establishment of an excessively harsh regime of austerity and penance and for a period the Cistercians became known as Trappists. In 1892 Pope Leo XIII divided the order into Cistercians of the Common Observance and Reformed Cistercians (previously the Trappists). Caldey belongs to the latter group.

In 1850 a group of Trappist monks founded a monastery at Chimay in Belgium, on land given to them by the Prince of Chimay. By 1871 what had started as little more than an old farmhouse and collection of sheds, became the Abbey of Notre Dame de Scourmont. After another 50 years of prayer, devotion and hard physical work, the community at Chimay was very well established. A steady stream of new novices presented themselves and the numbers of solemnly professed monks continued to grow. Between 1910-1920 the Abbey began to look seriously at the possibility of founding a daughter house and many possible sites were studied worldwide. On Caldey, at precisely this time the Benedictines under Dom. Aelred Carlyle had converted to Catholicism and had moved into the newly constructed monastery amongst a gathering storm of financial crises. As the true extent of their monetary problems became apparent, Carlyle left abruptly for Canada, with the community £20,000 in debt. With the Benedictines facing imminent bankruptcy Rome became concerned that Caldey, with its rich monastic heritage, might well have to be sold to salvage the situation. It was also rumoured that the Church of England might be prepared to purchase the island. To avoid this possibility Rome requested that the Reformed Cistercians purchase the island. The Abbot General agreed and in 1925 ownership of Caldey passed from the Benedictines to the Cistercians. However, in this agreement a clause allowed the Benedictines a further three years to try to put their affairs on a more sound financial basis and if successful to re-purchase the island. By September 1928 the Benedictines were still not able to apply for repossession of the island and it passed permanently into the hands of the Reformed Cistercians. January 6th,1929 was the official date of the solemnisation of the Cistercian Foundation on Caldey.

Acknowledgements: from “Visitor's guide to Caldey Island ”, by Alan Shepherd.

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