02 Nov 2017

This week we are pleased to share with you a new podcast on the work of Abbot Edmund Ford.

2017 marks 160 years since Ford’s birth and 140 years since his ordination and this week marks 87 years since his death (30th October 1930). Abbot Edmund Ford was the first Abbot of Downside and was instrumental in the building of the Abbey Church and of Downside’s parish in Beccles. A popular parish priest, Ford gave many lectures both in Beccles and at Downside. 

Despite his many achievements we rarely refer to Ford as a scholar monk. Alice Morrey, an MA student at the University of Bristol and volunteer in the Downside Archives and Library, has been researching Ford’s collection and has shared her findings with us in the following podcast. 

You can find out more about Downside’s other scholar monks, including Cardinal Gasquet and Dom David Knowles, in The Ministry of the Printed Word: Scholar Priests of the Twentieth Century, published by the Downside Abbey Press. You can purchase a copy of the book here or in our Visitor Centre.

If you are interested in researching in the Archives and Library, contact us here