HISTORY

      Burford Priory, unusually, returned to monastic use after an interval of some 400 years in private ownership. A religious house existed here from the 13th century – probably Augustinian canons, whose duties included the running of a hospital. There are traces of the old building in the present-day priory, despite substantial remodelling and rebuilding over the centuries when it was a private home, until it became a community again in the middle of the 20th century.

      The first major rebuilding of Burford Priory after the dissolution of the monasteries took place in the early 17th century, when Laurence Tanfield, a barrister and MP, acquired the property. The second period of modernization was during the occupancy of William Lenthall, one-time Speaker in Parliament. Clearly a man of oscillating loyalties during the time of the Civil War, he was a signatory to the death warrant of Charles I, but then promoted the restoration of the monarchy. In the 19th century John Lenthall, faced with a decline in family fortunes, had more than half of the old building demolished, and it decayed gently until Colonel de Sales la Terriere and his wife carried out major restoration work at the beginning of the 20th century.

      Then in 1948 a community of sisters based near Oxford, who were looking for a place where they could lead an enclosed contemplative community life, following the Benedictine Rule, happened on the Priory. In the 1960s the rule of strict enclosure was relaxed, and eventually the novitiate was opened to men. The present community of eleven is now mixed, and divides its time between work, prayer, study and hospitality.

      There has been a cat at Burford Priory since 1970, when the community took in a stray with an injured back leg. The second cat to arrive was Suki, brought to the Priory by the widow of a retired local doctor. Suki quickly endeared herself to Sister Mary Bernard, by clambering up her habit and settling immovably on her lap. She enjoyed a long and tranquil life there from 1978 to 1991. Then came Vosgi: a real community cat, he took over the whole building, roaming jovially from room to room, hogging the best place in front of the parlour fireplace during the winter, and continually trying to gain access to the kitchen – in the spirit of friendship for the brothers and sisters working in the kitchen, rather than out of interest in food, naturally!