Centre for Monastic Heritage

The Centre for Monastic Heritage has formed through a partnership between Downside Abbey and the University of Bristol (Department of Religion and Theology). Here you can access details of new publications and forthcoming events. 

Downside Abbey has the largest monastic archive and library in the United Kingdom. The Abbey, whose rich scholarly traditions have produced men of learning such as Dom David Knowles and Cardinal Aidan Gasquet, patroned the great Medievalist and Liturgist Edmund Bishop, and continues to produce monks at the forefront of their intellectual fields. Its learned journal, The Downside Review, founded in 1880, is now published in collaboration with SAGE Publications. 

Downside is home to centuries of Benedictine heritage in the heart of Somerset. It is a proud addition to the monastic landscape of the West Country, home of Bath and Glastonbury abbeys and the site of the earliest monastic foundations in these isles. 

Downside Abbey and the University of Bristol have worked in partnership since the Second Vatican Council and have recently combined their forces, with the Department of Religion and Theology, in the creation of the Centre for Monastic Heritage. This Centre combines the rich professional resources of the University, its staff and expertise, with the small heritage team at Downside protecting the heritage and cultural assets to which the Abbey is custodian.