The Monastery’s Victorian organ sings again as Manchester venue marks 30th anniversary

It is a well-known saying that good things come to those who wait and those words are none truer than for the custodians of The Monastery, Manchester.

In 2022 I wrote in Quays Life about the amazing story of the Gorton Monastery, and the equally amazing fact that in 1863 a handful of Belgian Franciscan monks, managed to commission one of the leading architects of the day to design and build the imposing church and friary on Gorton Lane Manchester. The architect was Edward Pugin, whose father Augustus was the architect for the Houses of Parliament.

I wrote about the wish of The Trust custodians working hard to reinstate an organ after the original one, installed in 1888, was stripped out and sold for scrap when the Monastery was sold to developers. Then the certain serendipitous set of events of 2020 when Elaine Griffiths OBE, CEO of the Monastery Manchester, received a letter from David Emery, the treasurer and organist at Patricroft Methodist Church in Eccles, Salford. The church had closed, and the Monastery was being offered their organ at no cost other than paying for the removal and installation in the Monastery’s organ loft. Remarkably the Patricroft church organ was made by Wadsworth, the same firm who made the Monastery’s, it was only a few years older and similar to the one the building had lost.

The Monastery of St Francis and Gorton Trust had set up the Wadsworth Organ Appeal to raise £100,000 to cover the cost of dismantling, repairing, reconfiguring, and rebuilding the Victorian instrument which has almost 1,000 pipes. The team at Quays Life were delighted to receive news recently that thanks to generous sponsorship and donations the organ is back where it belongs! It has been lovingly restored, repaired, re-configured, rebuilt and updated to its full glory for future generations to enjoy.

The Monastery Trust marked it’s 30 years of restoration and community impact with a special anniversary celebration recently.
Held in the striking surroundings of the Great Nave, the evening will bring together music, dancing, food and community, celebrating three decades of transformation from a derelict Franciscan friary into one of Manchester’s most distinctive heritage and events venues.

Since 1996, The Monastery’s charitable trust has led the restoration of the Grade II* listed building, creating a space that now hosts a wide range of cultural, wellbeing and community-focused activities throughout the year.

The anniversary event featured live music, dancing, a licensed bar and a traditional hot pot supper, which offered guests the opportunity to experience the building in a relaxed and celebratory setting.

CEO Elaine Griffiths told us about this milestone celebration: “It was a celebration of the people who have supported the Monastery over the past 30 years. What was once a building at risk has become a place of welcome, connection, peace and purpose for so many. We’re proud to have marked this moment with our community and looking ahead to the future.”

So what does Elaine envisage for the next 30 years? “The next 30 years – a fascinating thought! We are currently working on our 30th Anniversary projects and events that are supported by a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund. One of the very important things we need to do to future proof the Monastery heritage buildings is to replace the 20-year-old boilers and heating system with something much more efficient. We’re also exploring ways of making the building more environmentally sustainable and have carried out a comprehensive carbon management plan to inform all these major decisions.

“In the immediate future we are creating a new Wellness Wing in the first-floor suite of rooms of the former Friary that will be launched over the summer. This means that we will have qualified holistic therapists and wellbeing practitioners running their clinics and being based here all the time. There will also be therapy rooms, workshop spaces, meeting and training rooms available for hire.

“In terms of the wider vision the Trust wants to ensure that the Monastery thrives and continues to be loved, cared for and well used by the local community. This can only be achieved if we continue to generate a successful income through commercial venue hire for special events, conferences, concerts and weddings.

“We currently share our building with Manchester Camerata Orchestra who are driving forward the music and health agenda through their innovative dementia work with the Music Café, Music in Mind and Music Champions as well as delivering world class Monastery concerts and performances on a regular basis.

“The team from Mentell, the men’s mental health support charity moved in with us in June. They deliver our weekly Wednesday Men’s Group, and we will be doing so much more together in the future too with our daily Hour of Silence, Healing Garden and sacred spaces around our heritage site we are increasingly creating a sanctuary atmosphere and hopefully a long-term place of peace and purpose that is very much aligned with the original Franciscan values”.

I thanked Elaine for this snapshot of the future; I am sure the Belgian Franciscan monks would too. As is with all the finest CEOs I am sure Elaine and her team have many more plans in the making, but those plans are for another day and the decades to follow.