The Quarr Abbey House of the early 20th century was one of several fine houses constructed along the north coast of the Isle of Wight in southern England. It was built with stone from the ruins of a Norman abbey on the site. It was a residence of the Cochrane family.
A prominent member of the Cochrane family was the daring Admiral Lord Cochrane (1775–1860), "le loup des mers" ("the sea wolf"). Admiral Cochrane was famous for his part in the liberation of Chile, Peru and Brazil from colonial dominion. Admiral Cochrane's life and adventures inspired the fiction of novelists Captain Marryat, C.S. Forester, Patrick O'Brian and Bernard Cornwell.
Admiral Thomas Cochrane's nephew Admiral Sir Thomas John Cochrane (1779–1872) lived at Quarr Abbey House. His daughter Minna was lady-in-waiting to Princess Beatrice, youngest daughter of Queen Victoria. It was at Quarr Abbey House that Princess Beatrice spent her honeymoon after her marriage to Prince Henry of Battenberg on July 23, 1885 at St. Mildred's Church, Whippingham on the Isle of Wight. Henry died ten years later and was buried at St. Mildred's Church, part of which became known as the Battenberg Chapel.
Queen Victoria visited Quarr Abbey House. The Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, and the German Kaiser William II watched the sailing boats from the balcony of the house during the annual Cowes Week Regatta. Only ten days before her death, Queen Victoria recorded in her diary she had enjoyed a duet at Quarr Abbey House played by Minna Cochrane and her daughter Beatrice. After the Queen's death at Osborne House, the Cochrane family and others ceased to frequent the island so often. Quarr Abbey House was left in the hands of a caretaker and put on the market.
In 24 May 1907 Quarr Abbey House was bought by Benedictine monks who had been leasing the Appuldurcombe House near Wroxall on the Isle of Wight. Since Quarr Abbey House was smaller than Appuldurcombe House, a refectory and monks' quarters had to be constructed on the site. In 1911 work began on the Abbey church which was consecrated on October 12, 1912.
Famous quotes containing the words abbey and/or house:
“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)
“When you have eaten your fill and have built fine houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks have multiplied, and your silver and gold is multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied, then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery...”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 8:12-14.