old. In March 2017, the community entered into membership of the International Trappist Association with a view to developing their artisanal economy following the closure of their dairy farm in 2014. In addition to its official website, the community maintains a presence at Facebook, which as of June 2022 has attracted more than 10,000 followers. The Abbey Church and grounds The Abbey Church is dedicated to the Greater Glory of God, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Bernard. The severe, undecorated Gothic style of the church is traditional in the Cistercian order and can be seen in the remnants of old Cistercian abbeys. Pugin borrowed from these remains in his efforts to reproduce their simple and austere beauty and personally supervised the construction of the western nave, which was completed in 1844. The granite used to build the monastery was quarried by the monks in the monastery grounds. The Ketton stone came from Normanton Hall, whilst the Walldon stone came from Lord Ancaster's quarries. In 1839, the founder, Ambrose Phillipps de Lisle wrote: "The Monks have already commenced drawing the stone, and one of the Contractors for the Midland Counties railway has very generously given them enough iron rails to make a little Railway to their great granite rock from the spot on which the Monastery is to stand, so that by the help of a rope and a wind-lace with only one horse all the material except sand, lime, and free stone will be drawn. This is another mark of the divine protection in my opinion [and] besides this, you will be glad to hear that the proprietor of the Barrow lime works (not Barrow on Trent but Barrow-on-Soar) has given them gratis all the lime they will want for the whole edifice; is not this glorious?" In February 1934 work was begun on extending the abbey church, with eighty monks working for four years on a project which saw the building lengthened from 90 feet to 220 feet. The architect was F. J. Bradford of Leicester, who mirrored the western nave by Pugin, by continuing the church east by five bays, to make a nave for the laity and a monastic choir in the original nave. The site of the extension was a sloping platform of solid rock, which was blasted away on one side and filled in on the other with mass concrete to