School with Pugin and Rosmini

When I was glancing down my labels list, I was disappointed to see that I have only written one post on Pugin. The plan, after seeing his masterpiece in Cheadle, was to visit and report on more places in the Midlands designed by Pugin. I already have St. Chad's Cathedral in mind, which is the mother Church of our Birmingham Archdiocese and the first Catholic Cathedral to be built in this country following the reformation. To wet your appetite, here is the sanctuary:

Astute readers will note there used to be a Pugin rood screen there. I will write much more soon. My current medical placement is very close to the Cathedral, so I am blessed at lunchtimes to be able to pray there and occasionally attend their 12.15 Mass. I will take some more pictures in due course, and hopefully visit the crypt for the first time.

As a stop-gap I want to mention one other Pugin building which has been an inspiration for me: Ratcliffe College Independant Catholic School in Leicestershire.

It is here where I spent my formative years as a weekly boarder, and was confirmed in 1996 (if I remember correctly). It is a religious building founded by the Rosminian Order, originally in 1845 as a seminary. In 1847 it became a private school. While I was there we celebrated its 150th anniversary and I was thurifer at a High Latin Mass celebrated by Cardinal Basil Hume.

One aspect which will always remain unknown to me is Pugin's original Chapel. It is still possible to see the great rose window (although not in these pictures - it is at the back of the school). This part of the building has since been converted into a two-story school block. When I was there it was used as a history department, and a R.S. room (complete with altar!) with lots of stories of ghosts abounding.


The new Church is Byzantine-style, and what I think to be rather attractive. It is able to accommodate all 750 pupils for school assemblies. Not really in keeping with Pugin's original architecture, but still.

One of my ancestors has his name engraved on the World War memorial behind the sanctuary (H.W. Coghlan, died during the First World War). Another of my ancestors, Col. Charles Coghlan, wrote the musical accompaniment to the "Old Boys Song" (words by Rev G. Burton, D.D.) which I shall hasten to sing (actually, say):

1. Once more in Alma Maters bowers we meet to crown another year.
And ev'ry sight recalls the hours when we were laughing youngsters here
The pranks we played the jokes that flew
The mirth that bubbled in the brain;
and gazing on the picture, few but wish they could be lads again.

Chorus: Then come all ye boys of Ratcliffe, raise the brimming bowl and let your song, both loud and strong under the rafters roll Then here's to the wolds and woodlands and the wreake that by them runs And the heath that's dear to all hearts here old Ratcliffe and her sons.

2. Again we breathe the cloisters peace old voices echo in the hall.
And batsman poses on the crease the crashing elm receives the ball
Now for a dip in sultry June
Within the islet cool we stand
or lounge a lazy afternoon beside the millstream rod in hand. &C.

3. That bell within its lofty perch that summon'd us to work or play,
That bade us to our place in church, rings out again our holiday
Oh, could it toll above the noise that murmurs over land and sea
And gather here all Ratcliffe boys, what mercy greetings would there be! &C.

4. Now some have made their homes afar and some are laid within the loan,
And of so many few there are who meet in this their boy-hood's home
Yet here their hearts are still entwined like ivy round an aged stem
And we will keep them all in mind, and pledge a cup for us and them! &C.

Although I have some bitter memories from my time there, reading this song (which I hasten to add is probably no longer sung) brings a tear to my eye and the overriding happy memories to mind! If any of my old school mates are reading this, I join my affections with you in offering up prayers to Our Lady.

There is also an initiative to beatify Antonio Rosmini, a prominent 19th century Catholic philosopher. He founded the Institute of Charity (the Rosminians) and ordered the foundation of Ratcliffe College. He is a particularly controversial figure in light of two of his books which were placed on the Church's Index of Forbidden Books in 1849 (The Five Wounds of the Church and The Constitution of Social Justice). These have since been reconciled with Church teaching since the Second Vatican Council, whose themes were in many ways prefigured by Rosmini. In 2001 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger signed a declaration which applied a historical-critical method to the Church's magesterium and reversed the Holy Office's condemnation of 40 propositions in 1887. My feelings on this are currently neutral, and I shall attempt to find out more in due course from some of my Rosminian friends. Still, I pray for his beatification along with Newman's. He was declared Venerable on 26th June 2006.

O my God, O incarnate Word, may your Spirit be the cause of all my activities, of all that I do; may nothing in me come from myself, but everything from you.

- Venerable Antonio Rosmini Serbati (1797-1855)

Before I stray too far off-topic, here is one last picture I have of a Pugin building. No prizes for guessing which one this is: