Colin Crosby Heritage Tours

Mount St. Bernard Abbey

Mount St. Bernard Abbey is a Catholic monastery in the heart of Charnwood Forest in Leicestershire, not far from Whitwick.

It was the first monastery to be built in England for centuries.

The local landowner Ambrose de Lisle March Phillips, of Garendon, together with the Earl of Shrewsbury, put up the money, and the great Augustus Pugin gave his services without payment.

Mount St. Bernard opened in 1844, and among early visitors were William Wordsworth, William Ewart Gladstone and Florence Nightingale, while Thomas Cook of Leicester brought a tour party.

It was extended by F. J. Bradford in 1935, and Eric Gill created choir stalls in 1938. There is a solid tower added by Albert Herbert after the Second World War.