Quarr

We did not get out and about much in the course of our recent visit to the Isle of Wight, but we did manage two visits to Quarr Abbey, once in the margins of a visit to Firestone Copse and once to hear an organ recital.

A place with a car park, a cafeteria, pleasant grounds, some pigs and a fine abbey church. There is also a Pilgrims' Chapel underneath the chancel, round the back, but we did not visit it this year.

On the first occasion, we took a snack in the cafeteria. A place which offers, in line with most of these places these days, bacon rolls. Which was OK, but the not-very-good baguette was no substitute for proper factory white. I wonder today if the cafés of Paris still serve decent rolls and baguettes for breakfast? Butter or jam was the form last time we were there, and bacon was not on the menu at all. And what about the café in Whitecross Street, in London. Is it still there? Will the programme at St. Luke's tempt me back next season? Not been back since their refurb.

More positively, we got to find out about three short afternoon organ recitals the following week, in part to show off their Mutin Cavaillé-Coll organ of 1912, as subsequently refurbished and repaired from time to time. Which I now know from reference 5 to be from one of the leading organ builders of the late nineteenth century.

I also took the time to have a sit in the church, a quiet and impressive space for just sitting, notwithstanding some older ladies - who should have known better - quietly chattering to my left for some of that time.

So we turned up for the first of these recitals, which gave us the option for more, an option which we did not, in the event take up. Firing blind, as we did not get to know the programme, snapped above, until we turned up.

A fine instrument and a fine place to hear it, but I have to say the programme was a bit too much of a medley, a format I am not very keen on. Perhaps chosen to suit the likely audience, perhaps chosen to show off the instrument, but I found it hard to settle to the frequent changes.

Afterwards to a bench from which to admire the beach at Ryde for a while, maybe even a short walk on the beach, and then to take noodles and so forth at the Hong Kong Express, just across the road from the pierhead bus station,. They did us well with large portions, starting with a huge bowl of prawn crackers. Then mixed starters, then the noodles proper. I steered clear of the green tea - as previously mentioned - and stuck with water.

Good gear, but maybe next time I will ask them to go easy on the spring onions, of which there were rather too many for my taste, imparting a rather sour note to the proceedings. We learned that fortune cookies were manufactured in the US - at the least the ones that came with the bill were.

Pleasant and efficient service, I thought south and southeast Asian rather than east Asian, that is to say Chinese.

PS: there was also a nice, shady seat on the platform of the Esplanade Station, the station that serves Brading amongst other places. But whatever was the small hut in the middle of the snap above for?

Awful know-all this Google chap. I wonder how many people have asked him about it? Tens? Hundreds? Commercial-in-confidence?

Perhaps I will attempt a check in the morning.

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2024/08/footnote.html. Our 2024 visit, included here for the snap of the impressive nave. A place which is sufficiently solemn that I do not like to take pictures, even when there is no-one else there.

Reference 2: https://quarrabbey.org.

Reference 3: https://www.buckfast.org.uk/. Quarr has much in common with Buckfast - but no Barbarossaleuchter. Not their style at all.

Reference 4: https://dwightlongenecker.com/. A convert to Catholicism who looks to be at the commercial end of things. But the source of the snap at the head of this post, presumably of the refectory, which we have not visited - and which is presumably not open to the public. Certainly not to non-members. In which connection, I might say that a visiting organist from France sat with the public for the concert, rather than in the stalls for the monks, even though he was dressed as one. Perhaps the local monks were rather jealous of their sitting rights, even though there were a lot more stalls than monks.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aristide_Cavaill%C3%A9-Coll.