Attention, Brede fans!

So, in poking around the internet the other day I discovered that the Benedictine nuns of Stanbrook Abbey, which was the model for the monastery in Rumer Godden's In This House of Brede, have moved to a purpose-built green building and sold, or are in the process of selling, the original property. They made the decision because, with a smaller community and declining vocations, caring for acres of land and buildings was taking up a disproportionate amount of their time. I haven't been able to determine who has bought the original property, but I have some purely selfish excitement in the idea that I could, conceivably, one day get to poke around the former enclosure.

The community's decision is just the one reached by the Anglican order of the Sisters of St. Helena, who recently closed and sold their motherhouse in Vails Gate, NY (to a yeshiva, as it happens) and moved the whole community to their house in Augusta, VA while they plan and buy property to build a new green building to house the whole community and their programs.