Ampleforth's muscular Christianity (From Gazette & Herald)

Ampleforth's muscular Christianity

STAFF, pupils and people living near a leading North Yorkshire education centre will be able to get into healthy habits with the opening of a new fitness suite.

On Sunday the Right Reverend Timothy Wright, OSB, Abbot of Ampleforth Abbey, blessed the new fitness suite at the St Alban Centre, Ampleforth. Present were representatives of the school, local parents and students, the chairman of Ryedale District Council, Coun Brian Cottam, and its planning committee chairman, Coun Allin Jenkins.

The new suite has an array of equipment, including treadmills, bikes, steppers and rowing machines, and will provide a much-needed facility for students and the local community. Ampleforth now has a range of indoor sporting facilities that can now compete with those provided for outdoor sports that are considered to be some of the best in the country.

At the opening, the abbot said he was delighted that its completion had helped fulfil a deep-rooted philosophy that the facilities should be available not only to those who worked and lived at the monastery and school, but also to members of the local community and visitors.

The building of a state-of-the-art sports centre at Ampleforth had always been a project close to the heart of the late Cardinal Basil Hume, former abbot and Archbishop of Westminster, who had been a keen sportsman.

Coun Cottam said: "The existence of such facilities is particularly welcome in serving the rural community. Many similar amenities existed in urban centres, but often those outside towns and cities were forgotten. The opportunity for increased employment that the centre offers is both warmly recognised and appreciated."

The headmaster, Father Gabriel Everitt, OSB, who is a keen fitness enthusiast himself, said the new development had served to whet the appetite for continued improvement.

Updated: 11:19 Thursday, April 22, 2004