St. Robert's Catholic Church, Harrogate, England

The Church of Our Lady Immaculate and St. Robert is commonly known as St. Robert's, a much easier and less long-winded name. It is named after St. Robert of Knaresborough, more about him below. The church was constructed in the 1860s and 1870s and dedicated on 5 June 1873. The style follows the Gothic revival popular at the time.

St. Robert's Church and rectory

Other side of the church

Over the front door

The nave of the church is fairly simple and the sanctuary is beautiful, with an altar rail and a striking crucifix above.

Nave

Altar

Fancy crucifix

The main altar is flanked by two altars, one to St. Joseph on the left and another to the Sacred Heart on the right.

St. Joseph altar

Sacred Heart altar

As with many English churches (both Anglican and Catholic) there is a special chapel dedicated to Our Lady. This chapel is located halfway down the right side of the church and is quite bright and ornate.

The Lady Chapel

Altar detail (click to enlarge)

Just outside is an icon of the Our Lady.

Madonna and Child Icon

The church has some very impressive stained glass windows with some interesting scenes though no main theme runs through them. There's a mixture of saints and bible scenes.

The Good Shepherd

Sts. Philip Neri and Cecila

Detail from St. Cecelia, patron of musicians!

The Holy Family at work!

The stations of the cross are also noteworthy. The fine bas relief work is recessed into the wall a few inches, providing a frame and bringing out the depth a bit more.

First Station: Jesus is Condemned to Death

The advent wreath is up. As I post, it's the Fourth Sunday of Advent in 2013, so it's not Christmas just yet! I'm not sure when they started putting white candles in the middle of the wreath for Christmas Day, but I think it is a nice addition.

Advent Wreath

The church has a fine painting of St. Robert in the back.

St. Robert of Knaresborough

Who was St. Robert of Knaresborough?
Robert Flower was born in 1160, son of the mayor of York. Soon he became a novice at the Cistercian abbey in Newminster. He felt called to a life a solitude and joined a knight/monk who lived in a cave by the River Nidd in Knaresborough. The knight soon left and Robert spent his time ministering to the poor and destitute. He kept a small farm to support himself. Legend has it he complained to William de Stutville (constable of nearby Knaresborough Castle) that the king's deer were eating his crops. William mocking offered Robert the deer if he could catch them. Robert led the deer to his barn as if they were sheep and soon put them to use pulling his plow! People admired Robert's piety and charity and began to give gifts, seek his counsel, and join his work. He formed a small community of Trinitarian Friars at his cave on the River Nidd. Robert died on 24 September 1218 and asked the monks to keep his body from being moved to Fountains Abbey, the large nearby Cistercian abbey where many holy men were buried. The cave where he was buried was a site of pilgrimage for many years thereafter.

Robert was never officially canonized but is considered an outstanding saint of the early 1200s. His feast is celebrated on September 24.

St. Robert's Beer Festival 2012, Pannal

We recently attended yet another beer festival, this time in the town of Pannal. This festival was different because it was held at a church! The website's description of the church:

St Robert’s is a Church of England parish church serving the community of Pannal and Burn Bridge on the southern edge of Harrogate. It has a lively worshiping community with a strong Junior Church (usually over 70 children from 0-16), a good choir and a wide range of groups and activities.

St. Robert's Church, Pannal

They do indeed have a wide range of activities since this is the third annual St. Robert's Beer Festival. The church is not very large so a lot of the celebration was set up in the surrounding yard. Graveyard, that is!

When we arrived, people were wandering around the graves and open spaces (there's plenty of room for others to be buried) surrounding the church. Maybe their eyes were a little glassy and maybe their steps were a little unsure and maybe they could have been mistaken for zombies freshly risen from the graves. But they were simply revelers in the midst of their revelry. One of the activities during the festival was racing. Ferret racing, that is!

Church, graveyard, and ferret racetrack

The Rockcliffe Ferret Rescue was raising money for their work. In addition to walking ferrets or petting them, they were racing them down these long tubes. The first time I watched, I was amazed. Once they came out the far end, the ferret handler (another job for which parents could donate money so their children could do it) had to turn them around and have them race back to the start. In the second race, Jacob and his friend Zara were handlers.

Lining up

Handing out the ferrets

Turning the first ferret around

As you may guess from the picture above, neither Jacob's nor Zara's ferrets were particularly quick to make it through the tube. Many of the other ferrets had trouble too. Often the critters would turn mid-tube and go back to the start. The kids were given little pads to cover the end of the tube so the ferrets would go the right way. Eventually, Jacob's came in second, though there is no prize for second place at the ferret races.

After the race, the children got to feed the furry fellows.

Jacob is a little nervous about feeding them

Lucy has him eating out of her hand!

Another activity was a tombola, which is a sort of raffle where one draws tickets that are matched to prizes. If the ticket ends in a zero or a five, it's a winner. This tombola was not especially fancy, as many prizes consisted in bottles of soft drinks or squash (juice in American). A very good looking bottle of wine had ticket number 100 (big round numbers are usually bigger prizes). We did not win any prizes.

Lucy at the tombola

At this point, readers may be wondering, "But wasn't there any beer at this beer festival?" Yes, quite a number of local breweries provided the dozen and a half possible choices of beers to drink. Festival admission included a commemorative glass and six tickets for half pints. Here's what I tried in no particular order:

• Alnwick Brewing Co Amber Ale, 3.8% alcohol content--"Classis [sic] amber ale with strong infusion of fuggles and styrian goldings hops specifically for the North Eastern palate. Good hoppy nose and biscuity body." To me, this was a smooth and coppery ale with nice flavor. It was very drinkable.
• Mithril Ales 100 Beers on a Dead Man's Chest, 3.8%--"Brewed to celebrate their 100th brew and last Wednesday, 'International Talk Like A Pirate Day.'" This ale was okay but not as special as its thematic name and description would lead one to believe.
• Rudgate Brewery Ruby Mild, 4.4%--"Recently awarded the gold medal in the mild category at Britain's most prestigious beer festival, CAMRA's 'Great British Beer Festival.'" I liked this a lot, with its rich flavor and little bitterness.
• Roosters Cogburn, 4.3%--"This beer is a homage to the lead character in True Grit. It's a robust pale ale, with a great length of flavour, loaded with juicy fruit aromas from its combination of American hops." This golden ale might have been a little too fruity for my taste. I'm discovering that I'm not a big citrus fan when it comes to beer. If a strong taste of lemon/tangerine/grapefruit comes through, I don't like it. Oh well.
• Collingham Ales Journeyman, 3.9%--"Best Bitter brewed with Maris Otter and Munich Malted barley together with Summit and Styrian Golding hops to give a full measure of maltiness and superb hoppy flavour." This bitter was okay but it had more hop than malt (I think) which kept it from being the best it could be.

We had a nice dinner afterward at a local pub, The Harwood. The pub is right over the local rail line. The children loved seeing the occasional train go by. Realizing how late it was, we rushed home for the children's bed time, having enjoyed a fine afternoon out at church drinking beer.