Yorkshire Retreat

Thursday Nov 4th

I arrived to a very warm welcome at the all new, singing and ecologically dancing Stanbrook Abbey in Wass, North Yorkshire.
As the guest house is not yet built, it is part of the Phase 2 project, I am staying in one of the 9 holiday lodges which belong to the Abbey, and are generally used for holiday makers in the summer. It is cosy and warm, and with no WiFi signal, so yet again my blogs will all be retrospective!
Having slept like a proverbial log, I woke to brilliant sunshine, 3 mile views and the smell of pine woods. Gorgeous today, but like the Arctic in December I imagine! To my utter astonishment, and wondering, given my venue, whether it was a vision, a male peacock the size of a turkey which would feed 35 people, appeared inquisitively on my decking. He peered around corners in a slightly learned and myopic way, with a tinge of open eyed barminess in his eye. He was so tame however that a couple of slices of seeded bread later and I had a friend for life!
At 10am I arrived at the Abbey and began my day.






Moving from such exquisite buildings near Worcester, with a Pugin Church where the echo was to die for, into a modern and eco friendly, but low ceilinged building, has been torturous for the nuns who take the bulk of the chant. Suddenly they are transported into the hilltop equivelant of a recording studio with walls as dead as a padded cell ! (And I don’t mean a nun’s cell!)
The singing ‘morale’ has dipped, and I felt that in my 2 days here I dearly wanted to lift the gloom which had descended on the choir.
I taught some individual sessions first, including the Abbess, who came up the the RAM for lessons with me a number of years ago, and has a fine soprano voice. As Abbess of course, there are so many claims on her time and brain – especially given the move, which has exhausted everyone for the last 18 months.
We had a most successful choir practice, and after a relatively short period of time the old Stanbrook sound was filling the small church, and there was a distinct feeling of joy and enjoyment in the tone! We were on the same old trip of 2 weeks ago with J’s group – that is – the act of singing must be a ‘feel good’ thing to do, and when that happens the sound becomes full, vibrant and teeming with life.
I value the individual sessions so much, when I can attempt to pitch the lesson at the right place for the individual, whether they are a greatly experienced Chantress or a Novice who detests singing! Believe me there are some of those!
I finished at around 6pm and wended my weary way back to the lodge and after a long bubbly bath I fell into my cosy bed and read for about an hour, until the book fell out of my hand..........................