Tea the Seventh

Then all of a sudden an angel touched him and said, 'Get up and eat'. He looked round, and there at his head was a scone baked on hot stones, and a jar of water.  He ate and drank and then lay down again.
1 Kings,  Ch.19, verses 5 and 6 (New Jerusalem Bible)

Ampleforth Abbey Tea Room - Holy Saturday, 30th March 2013

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Tea Takers

Sarah Ryan

Paul Ryan

Olivia Ryan

Dom Henry Wansbrough OSB

Dom Hugh Lewis-Vivas OSB

Dom Luke Beckett OSB

Alex Farmer

Rachel Fisken
Sandra McNally

Lucy Matheson

Gail West

Tom West 

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Since 1995 I have spent almost every Easter at Ampleforth, attending the retreat at the Abbey. It is a very important place to us and to other friends who regularly make the journey here for the Triduum (not to mention some who live here).  It is also in one of my very favourite areas in the world and part of a landscape that is home. It seemed a rather good idea then that we should celebrate another tea here.

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Ampleforth Abbey

The Benedictine community at Ampleforth traces its history back to the monastic community of Westminster Abbey, refounded by Queen Mary, and which, after a time in exile in France, settled in Ampleforth in 1802. The community have run a school on the site since 1803, and continue to run schools, parishes and a Permanent Private Hall at Oxford.

The choir of the current Abbey Church was begun in 1924 and the building finished and consecrated in 1961. 

The Benedictine emphasis on hospitality is central to much of the Abbey's work, which includes a very full pastoral and retreat programme, and as a part of this they also welcome a wide range of visitors with very different approaches and expectations.  In such a context, a tea room is marvellous leveller....

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The tea was very generous - with fine sandwiches, scones and cakes - they have extremely high standards (and some of our more glamorous settings could learn much from the standard, range and presentation of the tea). The cake-stand count of four is the highest to date and most pleasing.

The clotted cream supply was bountiful, as Fr Hugh can testify.

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Arcadian Singers and Ampleforth

When I was at Oxford I sang in a chamber choir called the Arcadian Singers (and it was a very important part of my University experience, not only because it was an Arcadian performance of Britten's War Requiem that threw me frequently into the company of one Paul Ryan).  The tenor section of the choir included Dom Henry Wansbrough, then Master of St Benet's Hall, who provided the choir with hospitality on many occasions (and who regularly turned up to choir on his roller blades). Through his agency and the enthusiasm of the then president of the choir, Sanu de Lima, a Benet's student, it was organised that the choir would travel to Ampleforth to provide additional music for the liturgies of the Triduum in 1995 - and so a tradition was born.  It is still the case that the current Arcadian Singers provide the core of the choir, and, essentially, a conductor, but there is also a long standing group of 'old members' who have been returning frequently to enjoy the huge privilege and joy of singing the music we love, from Renaissance polyphony to contemporary choral works, in the context of the liturgies for which it was written.

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Other friends have also been an important part of the Easter experience, and fellow members of the Oxford and Cambridge Lourdes Pilgrimage regularly meet up here.  We have often had lovely times with Sandra here (Olivia, and in direct consequence the Abbey shop, have particularly benefitted from her great generosity...) and it was splendid to be joined by Alex for the first time this year.

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Biblical Scones

Alex started the discussion by stating that there were two references to scones in the New Jerusalem translation of the Bible, and she could only remember one. When one of the other people coming to tea was not only an extremely eminent Biblical scholar, but in fact the editor of that very translation, it seemed that it would be a simple matter to ascertain the other.  Unfortunately, Fr Henry didn't seem to remember either very clearly: fortunately, the Abbey shop, just across the main hall, provided the resources we required for a quick check. Both mentions are in the First Book of Kings, one is cited above, and this, from the story of Elijah and the widow, is the other:

But Elijah said to her, 'Do not be afraid, go and do as you have said; but first make a little scone of it for me and bring it to me, and then make some for yourself and for your son.'

(1 Kings, ch.17, v.13)

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Seventh Tea - Seventh Year

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The Mouseman of Kilburn

In the village of Kilburn, only a couple of miles from Ampleforth, sheltering under the escarpement of the Hambleton Hills, below the dramatic white horse carved into the hill face by a local schoolmaster and his pupils in 1857, the local carpenter Robert Thompson (1876-1955) established a thriving business making oak furniture, using traditional tools and based on English styles of the 17th century. The workshops maintain his commitment to craftsmanship and tradition, and still produce exceptionally beautiful furniture. All the pieces bear the symbol of the workshop, a small wooden mouse (and each carpenter has his own identifiable creature).  Ampleforth is full of this fabulous wood work.  I can remember looking for the mice here, on pews and kneelers, when I was a child, and the activity never pales, so it is very pleasing that the tea room has been furnished with Thompson tables and chairs that had been previously in the junior school.  The mice were very amenable tea companions.

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