Founders Day 15th January 2009

Staff and Trustees gathered together at Chalice Well to honour the founding of the Chalice Well Trust 50 years to the day.

Trustees shared with the staff a few words about the first days of the Trust and the visions of its founder, Wellesley Tudor Pole (WTP); This was followed by a silent meditation.

The Trust documents were signed in London on 15^th January 1959 at 34, Smith Square, SW1. Present were: Major Tudor Pole (in the Chair), A. Saville, Mrs Legh and L. Cornwall-Legh. In attendance were: Miss Hardcastle, Mrs Sandeman and J.M. Bowers. Apologies were received from: Miss Bright-Ashford and Clifford Wallis. The declaration was signed by all present and the conveyance of the Chalice Well property to the Trust was approved and signed. Mrs Sandeman (Christine Allen of former times) was appointed to be Clerk, Secretary and Custodian to the Trustees and Miss Hardcastle was appointed to supervise the gardens.

By the time of the second Trustee meeting in February Mr W. Higgs had come on board and he and his wife were soon to become the first Wardens living in Little St. Michaels (as it was now known).

Taken from “Chalice Well, The Story of A Living Sanctuary”, and Published by the Chalice Well Trust.

In the following extract “A Man Seen Afar”, WTP explained:

“At the beginning of 1959 it was my privilege to launch a wondeful adventure. The Chalice Well estate at Glastonbury Somerset lies on the slopes of Chalice Hill, almost under the shadow of the far-famed Michael Tor. For centuries past this hallowed site had been in private ownership, not easy to access to visitors and pilgrims.”

“With the co-operation of a group of friends, the property has now been vested in charitable trust and the hallowed well, the garden and Little St. Michaels Hostel are now open to all comers, irrespective of race, class or creed.”

I visited Glastonbury and Chalice Well for the first time in 1904 and at a time when Chalice Well property belonged to a Catholic Order. I was allowed to visit the Well and to drink the healing and vitalising waters from it’s spring. I was left with a feeling of sanctity and inspiritation, which has never left me. And I was left with something more, namely the premonition that in time to come I should be given the opportunity to come into possession of this truly wonderful place. Over half a century was to pass before the event fulfilled the premonitions. Strange are the ways of Destiny.”

It was fourteen years after Alice Buckton’s death when Wellesley Tudor Pole asked his friends and companions in the Big Ben Council, which ran the Silent Minute, to help him secure the Chalice Well and surrounding land. It was twenty-five years after Tudor Pole’s experience in the mountains around Jerusalem in December 1917 that on Armistice Sunday in 1940 the Silent Minute was inaugurated on the BBC. And it was fifty-five years between Tudor Pole’s first visit to Chalice Well in 1904 and the founding of the Chalice Well Trust in January 1959. In the imagination of Tudor Pole ideas would take shape and lay dormant, sometimes for many years, before re-emerging to fruition to establish powerful realities in our world.

Later in 1959 WTP wrote:

“If Chalice Well is to fulfil its destiny in coming times, then the right keynote must be sounded both now and regulary from this time onwards. Spiritual foundations must be well and truly laid. A spiritual keynote cannot be expressed in words but words can help to explain the central ideas that surround the Keynote itself. The Cup or Chalice is our symbol. It expresses the keynote of our age – Joy, Unity and Service.”

Thursday, 15 January 2009