The Abbey Church
The Abbey forms the central heart of the school. A Chapel service takes place for the whole school twice a week. On Monday there is a House Assembly and Wednesday a whole school Assembly. On Sundays the whole school gathers for a formal Sunday worship, and there are regular communion services throughout the term. The School, although a Church of England foundation, welcomes people of any faith, and also of none.
The abbey church is built in a mixture of Ham stone, Chilmark stone and flint and consists only of the choir, central tower and transepts. Its style is mostly Decorated Gothic dating from the mid-14th century with some 15th-century details in the tower and north transept. The eastern Lady Chapel was demolished after the suppression and some alterations were made by Wyatt in the late 18th century. The Earl and Countess of Dorchester were also generous to the church, and their joint tomb, designed by Robert Adam with sculpture by Agostino Carlini, is to be found in the north transept. Perhaps the most striking feature of the church's interior, however, is its south window, designed as a Tree of Jesse by Augustus Pugin. Other features of interest are the 14th century pulpitum and sedilia, the 15th century reredos and pyx canaopy, and the 16th century monument to John Tregonwell.
Read more about this topic: Milton Abbey School
Famous quotes containing the words abbey and/or church:
“The Abbey always reminds me of that old toast, “Above lofty timbers, the walls around are bare, echoing to our laughter, as though the dead were there.””
—Garrett Fort (1900–1945)
“A State, in idea, is the opposite of a Church. A State regards classes, and not individuals; and it estimates classes, not by internal merit, but external accidents, as property, birth, etc. But a church does the reverse of this, and disregards all external accidents, and looks at men as individual persons, allowing no gradations of ranks, but such as greater or less wisdom, learning, and holiness ought to confer. A Church is, therefore, in idea, the only pure democracy.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)