When I arrived at the almshouses at St Cross after walking across the water meadows, the brothers were just coming out of morning service at the Norman Church. I felt fortunate that, although most of the brothers were cutting straight across the quad back to their quarters, one brother was walking straight towards me along the path leading from the church.
I said hello and we passed the time of day and then I introduced myself and explained my project. I found that I was talking with Senior Brother John. He is not the eldest brother, that honour going to one who is 95 years old. However he has been at St Cross the longest of any brother: 28 years.
Brother John was walking with a stick so I suggested he might sit on the wooden seat just inside the entrance to the almshouses where I could take his photo and ask him a little about his life. He was so happy to agree and amenable to talk as much as I wanted.
Brother John told me about a student who recently completed an A-level Photography project on St Cross. He went back to his flat to fetch the photo-book to show me.
We then went round to the tea rooms at Hundred Men's Hall and sat outside with a drink: me with a coffee and Brother John with a diet coke. He told me that he would have to go at 11.15 as he was off to Chichester with a friend to the theatre to see 'Strife' by John Galsworthy. He said he loves the theatre.
Brother John seemed, as might be imagined, to know everybody passing by, including the architect who had come to meet the conservation officer to sort out a problem. He tried his best to 'encourage' other people to be in my strangers' project and had one success, more of that another day.
Brother John was a secondary school teacher in Fulham when, in 1954, the LCC appealed for volunteers to re-train as junior school teachers because there was a shortage at that level due to the 'bulge' of babies born after WW2.
So we found we had something in common, as I was eight years old then having been born the year after my dad returned from time as a PoW in WW2 thus being part of that 'bulge'.
During his teaching career, Brother John also worked in Cheriton, Hampshire and in Truro, Cornwall. He didn't like Cornwall, nor did he ever like anything to do with cars, said he lacked confidence in driving, worried that the car would not start and then would leave it too long standing outside so the battery was flat and it wouldn't start anyway! When he came to St Cross in 1988 he asked his son to drive him here and told him that the car was then his to keep.
"I liked it here from the first moment I came," he said.
You might just make out the purple band on Brother John's plaited pony tail. He wears another purple band further down the pony tail but no matter how we tried to keep it in the shot, it always slipped down inside his collar. He told me it was his hairdresser's idea and that now his daughter does his hair for him, as he hates the performance of washing it.
Brother John has no email or computer so I've promised to take him some prints of the photos which I took.
@quietpurplehaze at first I couldn't understand the independent lifestyle of this brotherhood, but on research now realise that it is not a religious order, and they only wear their gowns for church services.
Funnily enough I did have a couple of lines in my text to say that I still really do not understand why a secular institution requires its inhabitants to attend church in their robes every morning. But my commentary was getting too wordy so I deleted them. I asked Brother John when I first met him how long the service lasted and he looked at his watch and said '19 minutes'. The brothers pay weekly rent for their flats and would be barred from entering the almshouses if they already owned a property.
Loving this Strangers series of yours. Fav
Always find your comments interesting, Julie, but feeling dumb as I don't really understand this one?!!
Thank you, David - I'll look into the book idea. Have done a couple of photobooks but without words - quite a feat for me!
Funnily enough I did have a couple of lines in my text to say that I still really do not understand why a secular institution requires its inhabitants to attend church in their robes every morning. But my commentary was getting too wordy so I deleted them. I asked Brother John when I first met him how long the service lasted and he looked at his watch and said '19 minutes'. The brothers pay weekly rent for their flats and would be barred from entering the almshouses if they already owned a property.
Not a monk. The almshouses are a secular organisation and those who live there are called brothers. I'm used to it now but it used to puzzle me.