MEMBERS of a community of nuns have begun the delicate process of moving their worldly possessions 250 miles to their eco-friendly new home in the region.

The multi-million pound monastery at Crief Farm, Wass, near Helmsley, North Yorkshire, is the first of its kind to be built in the region for more than 400 years.

A group of 25 Benedictine nuns from the Conventus of Our Lady of Consolation will leave their old home, at Stanbrook Abbey, in Worcestershire, on Monday.

The first of a convoy of removal vans was loaded up for the long drive north last week.

The nuns, whose numbers have dwindled in recent years, decided to move when maintaining their old Victorian abbey became too time consuming and expensive.

Their new monastery is ecologically friendly, with solar panels, rain water harvesting, reed bed sewerage and a woodchip boiler.

It will feature cells for each of the nuns, a chapel, a recitary, a kitchen, a novitiate – where trainee nuns will study – a laundry room and a sewing room.

Stanbrook Abbey, the nuns’ former home, was built in the 19th Century.

It had been on the market for more than three years, with an asking price of £6m.

Despite subsequent reductions in the asking price, the abbey remains for sale.

Mother Abbess Andrea Savage, the convent leader, said that while the nuns were looking forward to moving into their new home, it was a source of sadness that their old home had not yet sold.

She said: “That has been my biggest heartbreak. It’s a big disappointment that we haven’t found a buyer before the move, but we have faith.”

Maintenance staff, a gardener and a security system will remain on site to ensure the building does not fall into disrepair.

Abbess Savage said: “We were spending too much time trying to look after the building and pay the bills.

“Now we are looking to the future and taking monastic life into the 21st Century.”

The nuns’ new home is smaller than Stanbrook Abbey and fits in with their desire to live a simple and frugal life, as well as being sensitive to environmental concerns.

For more information about the nuns’ move, visit stanbrookabbeyfriends.org