Church treasures saved from auction

Historic items from the former Benedictine Abbey at Ramsgate in Kent have been saved from auction following a private treaty sale.

The majority will go to the church of St Augustine in Ramsgate, the Grade I church built and fitted out in every detail by Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin next to his own house, The Grange.

Items returning to St Augustine’s include a beautiful monstrance of around 1850 and a watercolour sketch by Pugin of the church's interior. The sketch was a preparatory study for a large drawing which Pugin sent for display at the Royal Academy in 1849.

Other items will go to Farnborough Abbey, including a fine silver recusant chalice dating from 1633, especially rare because of the prohibition on Catholic worship during the Reformation.

The items were to have been put up for auction by the monks at Ramsgate Abbey after they moved to a smaller premises and to help fund their work.

The Archdiocese of Southwark took back responsibility for St Augustine’s church from the monks in 2010 and has instigated a major programme of repair with generous grant support from English Heritage.

An appeal was launched last November in the River Room at the House of Lords, a room also designed by Pugin.

The parish priest, Fr Marcus Holden, has established a Friends of St Augustine’s and patrons of the appeal include the broadcaster Alistair Stewart and the architectural writer Clive Aslet.

Fr Holden said, “We have a major programme to bring St Augustine’s back to as it was in Pugin’s day and the acquisition of these items contributes in a significant way to what we are seeking to achieve here in Ramsgate.

"Pugin decided to build this church here because St Augustine had landed nearby in 597AD. We want St Augustine’s to become a fitting place to commemorate both the towering achievements of Pugin and the coming of Christianity to England which captivated him.

"As we recall Pugin’s bicentenary on March 1, we will be celebrating not only an iconic national architect but a central figure of the Catholic revival.”

With the new acquisitions added to the existing collection, the Friends are planning to put on an exhibition.

The Archbishop of Southwark, the Most Rev Peter Smith, and the Abbot of Farnborough Abbey, the Rt Rev Dom Cuthbert Brogan, said they were "delighted" with the outcome.

Nathan Winter of Dominic Winter Book Auctions said, “We are delighted to have been of assistance to the Archdiocese of Southwark in the retention of a number of key historic objects from St Augustine’s Abbey in Ramsgate and to know that they will feature in the important restoration project now underway at the wonderful Pugin church there, widely regarded as one of the architect’s greatest achievements.”

Abbot Brogan said, “All sacred vessels are important. The recusant chalice communicates with a particular eloquence the hardships suffered by Catholics in what are described in the inscription on the chalice as ‘cruel times’. We are relieved that this chalice will remain in appropriate hands.”