Saturday 3 October 2026 – Hopkins Society Study Day at the Birmingham Oratory: 10:00 – 4:30pm
To register fill in the booking form.
Hopkins Society Study Day at the Birmingham Oratory
Category Archives: Past Event
Saturday 4 October 2025 – Study Day at Malling Abbey, Kent
Malling Abbey/St Benedict’s Centre,
52 Swan Street, West Malling, Kent, ME19 6JX
10:00am – 4:00pm
Programme of events
10:00am: Arrival and tea/coffee in the St Eanswythe Room, Malling Abbey
10:30am: Welcome by Michael Burgess, President of the Hopkins Society UK
10:40am: Grace in the works of Christina Rossetti and Gerard Manley Hopkins
Professor Emma Mason (Warwick University)
11:40am: Tea/coffee break
12:00pm: Milicent Hopkins and Anglican Sisterhoods
Michael Burgess (Hopkins Society UK)
1:00pm: Lunch
2:00pm: Tour of Malling Abbey and grounds (a community of Anglican Benedictine Nuns)
3:00pm: Hopkins: Medieval Architecture and Monasticism
Jill Robson (Hopkins Society UK)
4:00pm: Tea/coffee and departure
COST: £40 per person inclusive of lunch and tea/coffee, and £20 for students (full-time education or theological training).
CLOSING DATE FOR REGISTRATION: 25 September 2025.
REGISTRATION AND PAYMENT: Please complete the booking form here Booking Form and return to Philip Healy, Treasurer: hopsoctreasurer@gmail.com
Saturday 31 May 2025 Day visit to Barmouth, Gwynedd
We are pleased to announce the details of the Society’s day visit to Barmouth on the 150th anniversary of Hopkins’ visit, with the unveiling of a commemorative plaque.
Gerard Manley Hopkins Day in Barmouth 31 May 2025
In commemoration of the 150th Anniversary of Hopkins’ first visit
All the landscape under survey,
At tranquil turns, by nature’s rule,
Rides repeated topsyturvy,
In frank, in fairy Penmaen Pool.
Hopkins ‘Penmaen Pool’
Programme of Events
10:30am: Arrival and tea/coffee in the Arts Room, The Dragon Theatre, Jubilee Road, Barmouth LL42 1EF.
11:00am: Lecture by the poet Hilary Davies: ‘Spring in place, spring in time, spring in eternity’: Language, Poetry and God
12:15pm: Coach to the historic George III Inn on the banks of the Mawddach Estuary, Penmaenpool.
12:45pm: Lunch at the George III Inn, where Hopkins wrote his poem ‘Penmaen Pool’ with the inscription: ‘For the Visitors’ Book at the Inn’.
You may bring a packed lunch or purchase food at the inn.
2:00pm: A reading and discussion of Penmaen Pool by the Hopkins Society.
3:30pm: Coach back to Aber House, formerly the Jesuit Villa, where Hopkins stayed in 1875 and 1876
4:15pm: Unveiling of a Blue Plaque on the wall of Aber House. Ceremony attended by local dignitaries, including the Mayor of Barmouth, the Lord Lieutenant of Gwynedd, and the Jesuit Provincial.
4:30pm: Tea/coffee in the garden of Aber House.
7:30pm: Concert at the Dragon Theatre, with music, poetry, and raffle of No 1. of 150 bottles of a special Hopkins Ale brewed by Myrddin’s Brewery and Distillery in Barmouth.
The cost of the day, inclusive of tea and coffee, is £40 per person, and £20 for students (full time education or theological training). The closing date for registration is 16 May 2025.
To register, please download and fill out the booking form attached, then return it to The Treasurer: hopsoctreasurer@gmail.com
Visit to Farm Street Church
Featured
On Saturday (27 April), the Society held its first event of 2024, a visit to the London Jesuit Centre, Mount Street, and Farm Street Church, Mayfair. Hopkins was curate and Select Preacher at the church in July – November 1878. It was a very enjoyable occasion; some thirty people attended, our largest turn-out for a long time. We are grateful to Elaine Marshall and Michael Burgess for arranging the day.
Elaine set the scene with a talk on Hopkins’ time at Farm Street. We were then taken to the Jesuit Archives (Archivum Britannicum Societatis Iesu), where the archivists had put out a fascinating display of documents about Hopkins from the collection assembled by Fr Alfred Thomas, SJ when writing his major work, Hopkins the Jesuit: the years of training (Oxford University Press, 1969). It was a real pleasure to see examples of Hopkins’ beautiful handwriting, with its clarity and ease of movement. Robert Bridges’ wife, Monica, had included a specimen of it in her book, A New Handwriting for Teachers (Oxford, 1907).
Fr Brendan Staunton, SJ (St Francis Xavier Church, Dublin) then gave an insightful talk on Hopkins’ inner life as a Jesuit. After lunch, we went across to the church where Fr Michael Holman, SJ, (Superior of the London Jesuits) gave us a guided tour of the beautiful building. The church is celebrating its 175thanniversary this year. The building and its decoration and furnishing have been an ongoing work throughout the whole of that period. In fact, Hopkins would probably not recognize much of what is there today! Canon Michael Burgess, (Hopkins Society President) concluded the day with an interesting account of the sermons Hopkins preached at Farm Street. We are very grateful to the four speakers and the two archivists for making the day such a stimulating event.
Saturday, 27 April 2024 Farm Street Church and London Jesuit Centre, 114 Mount St, Mayfair, London W1K 3AH
Hopkins was a curate and Select Preacher at Farm Street from July – November 1878
Programme
10:00am Arrival and tea/coffee in the Loyola Room, Mount Street Jesuit Centre
10:30am ‘Hopkins and his time at Farm Street: July – November 1878’ – Elaine Marshall (Hopkins Society UK)
11:00am Visit to the British Jesuit Archives
12:00pm ‘Hopkins and the Ignatian Way: “Being indoors”’ – Fr Brendan Staunton SJ (Saint Francis Xavier Church, Dublin)
1:00pm Lunch
2:00pm Guided tour of Farm Street Church by Fr Michael Holman SJ
3:00pm ‘Hopkins and his Sermons at Farm Street’ – Michael Burgess (Hopkins Society UK)
4:00pm Tea/coffee and departure
The cost for the day, inclusive of lunch and tea/coffee is £40 per person, and £20 for students (full time education or theological training). Please note, the closing date for registration is 18 April 2024. To register, please complete the booking form attached and return to Claire Hutt, membership secretary: hopsoc.membershipsecretary@gmail.com
25 – 27 October 2024 Stonyhurst
The Hopkins Society Weekend Conference
Theodore House on the Stonyhurst Estate, Clitheroe, Lancashire, BB7 9PZ
Friday 25 October
2:00pm: Arrival/check in at Theodore House, adjacent to Stonyhurst College
6:30pm: Evening Meal
8:00pm: ‘The Peacock’s Eye’: Vision and Perception in Gerard Manley Hopkins – Katarzyna Stefanowicz (Hopkins Society UK; Birmingham University)
Saturday 26 October
8 – 9:00am: Breakfast
9:30am: ‘A Ploughed Field Glazed with Crimson Ice’: Hopkins’ Letters to Nature and the Krakatoa Sunsets of 1883/84 – Dr Jill Robson (Hopkins Society UK)
10:45am: Tea/coffee
11:30am: Visit to All Hallows Church, Great Mitton
1:00pm: Lunch
2:00pm: Guided tour of Stonyhurst Museum
4:30pm: Tea/coffee
5:00pm: Hopkins Studies Now – Dr Martin Dubois (Durham University)
6:30pm: Evening Meal
8:00pm: ‘The carol, the creation’: Hopkins – Poetry and Music – Michael Burgess and Irene Kyffin (Hopkins Society UK)
Sunday 27 October
8 – 9:00am: Breakfast
9:30 am: Eucharist
10:30 am: Tea/coffee
11:00 am: Hopkins incurvatus: the poetics of strain – Michael Rizq (Cambridge University)
12:30pm: Lunch and departure
Click here to download booking form.
Thursday, 16 November 2023 Online Event
5.00 pm: Zoom Poetry Reading. The theme of the session is Soldiers and Buglers. Members select and read poems by Hopkins and other poets on the theme. The session will last approximately one hour. Joining instructions will be circulated to members beforehand.
Saturday, 30 September 2023 Birmingham Oratory
To commemorate Hopkins’ time teaching at the Oratory School (September 1867 – April 1868), the Hopkins Society is holding a day-event with lectures, visits to the Oratory Church and its Museum, together with lunch at a nearby cafe.
We shall be meeting at Birmingham Oratory, 141 Hagley Rd, Edgbaston B16 8UE.
Programme
10:00am: Arrival and tea/coffee.
10:30am: Revisiting ‘Inscape’ and ‘Instress’: an exploration of their origins,
Lecture by Dr Jill Robson, Hopkins Society UK.
12:00pm: Lunch at Café Rumi, 205 Hagley Road, Birmingham.
1:30pm: Visit to the Museum of Saint John Henry Cardinal Newman and the Oratory Church.
2:30pm: Gerard Manley Hopkins and the Idea of a University
Lecture by Philip Healy, Hopkins Society UK.
3:45pm: Tea/coffee and departure.
The cost for the day, inclusive of tea and coffee, is £40 per person, and £20 for students (full time education or theological training). At lunchtime we will go to Café Rumi for pre-ordered food; this is not included in the cost for the day. Please note, the closing date for registration is 18 September 2023.
To register and pay for the event, please download, complete and return this registration form:
On receipt of your registration form, you will be sent the Café Rumi menu to pre-order your lunch. You will be able to pay for your lunch on arrival at Café Rumi.
