Tag Archives: Gerard Manley Hopkins

Saturday 4 October 2025 – Study Day at Malling Abbey, Kent

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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

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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.

Penmaenpool, Gwynedd

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

Barmouth Day Booking FormDownload

Visit to Farm Street Church

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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.