Sancta Maria Abbey, Nunraw

Introduction

Sancta Maria Abbey in Haddington is a rare example of a purpose-built monastic abbey constructed in Britain in the twentieth century. Designed in 1952 by architect Peter Whiston, the abbey was built for the Cistercian order from 1952 to 1969.

History

The Cistercian monks bought Nunraw House and its land in 1946. The foundation stone was officially laid on 22 August 1954. The church was never built at the northeast side of the cloister as intended; a single storey flat roofed wing completes the cloister instead. The main worship space has been in its current position in the northwest range since 1969 and is referred to as the 'temporary church'.

Peter Whiston (1912–99) was chief architect to the Scottish Special Housing Association from 1946 until 1950. The abbey has good yet restrained architectural detailing of Scandinavian influence, in line with the ethos of its intended use as a home for the religious community. The abbey also has many design elements contemporary with large educational and public projects built in the same period in Scotland. The design of the abbey is a modern interpretation of the traditional monastic convention based around a central cloister.

The architecture is austere but at the same time creates a calm, ordered and uplifting space that is still functioning as an abbey (2017). A photograph in Canmore of a design stage architectural model, also printed in The London Illustrated News of 9 June 1956, shows an ambitious initial design with a two-storey church with campanula at the northeast side of the quadrant. In the mid 1930s the abbey's architect, Peter Whiston spent time in Sweden and France and would have been familiar with developments in modern architecture abroad and in particular Scandinavia.

Architecture and furnishings

The stone is from the local Rattlebags quarry, laid as squared, split face rubble. The church doors are from Thurston Manor. Some choir stalls came from the abbey's Mother House at Roscrea, Ireland. The benches and kneelers are from the Royal Navy dockyards in Rosyth, Fife.

The decorative carved stone relief of Christ breaking bread with the two disciples at Emmaus is by Anne Davidson. The former oratory and library were converted to form three en-suite infirmary bedrooms in 2016. The small bespoke organ is dated 1971 and was built by Noel Mander of London. The stone was quarried by the community themselves, having cleared and reopened Rattlebags Quarry, specifically for use on the building.

Much of the construction work was carried out by the monks themselves with support from trained craftsmen and volunteers from Ireland on working holidays. The cloister is a two-storey, U-plan pitched roof range with an integral single-storey flat-roofed block forming an enclosed quadrant cloister garth. The southwest range houses the library and extends slightly outwards at its gable ends. The cloister windows have shallow pointed arches, while external windows are rectangular and vary in size, with large multi-pane glazed sections to the library, over the main staircase, and at the south corner stair.

There are three cantilevered concrete balconies with metal railings on the external elevation to the southeast. The refectory wing is two-storey with a pitched roof and a prominent chimney with an angled stack and tablet style cowl. A flat-roofed single-storey wing linked to the southeast corner of the refectory houses the laundry and workshops. The rectangular-plan flat-roofed garage and workshop block to the southeast dates to the mid-1960s, is mostly rendered with large glazed window sections and walls part clad in stone to each end.

The window margins, cills and lintels on the refectory block, built first, are cut from Rattlebags stone, while elsewhere details use roughly faced precast concrete lintels and precast margins and cills. The concrete uses Rattlebags stone aggregate and mimics the appearance of the wall faces. The doors are timber and glazed replacements, changed around 2016, similar to the original doors. The roofs are slated with plain stone skews.

The white cloister corridors have polished slab granolithic stone flooring and recessed pointed arch details that copy the style of the windows and carved timber Stations of the Cross. The main rooms such as the small café, the library and the chapel all have timber floors with flat board timber ceilings and plain light fittings in a mid-twentieth century style. There is a large irregular-plan open stair with metal and horizontal timber handrails in the large glazed entrance hall at the west corner entrance. There are large communal wash areas with cream terrazzo dado to the walls.

The interior of the garage and workshop block, seen in 2017, contains metal working and wood workshops as well as garages and stores. The theme of the shallow pointed arched openings to the cloisters is reflected in the floor plan shape of the steps to the refectory. The other public spaces such as the chapel and library also have good quality yet simple detailing in a contemporary Swedish modern style, for example the extensive use of stained timber boarding typical of the 1960s. The lower corridor of rooms below the refectory includes a sewing room, print room and bookbinding room to serve the domestic and commercial elements of the community.

The refectory is the largest interior space and has six exposed squared stone pillars to the side walls supporting a tall vaulted timber clad roof. The refectory has a patterned vinyl floor edged by a stone skirting. By the timber east wall of the refectory there is a cantilevered marble based pulpit with a slender Festival style timber and metal railing. The kitchens include a bread room with original bread store fittings.