The Grade I listed monastic buildings and church, completed in 1912, are considered some of the most important twentieth-century religious structures in the United Kingdom; Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described the Abbey as "among the most daring and successful church buildings of the early 20th century in England".

[3] St Mary's Abbey at Quarr was part of the Cistercian Order and was founded in 1132 by Baldwin de Redvers, 1st Earl of Devon, fourth Lord of the Isle of Wight.

[4] The founder was buried in the Abbey in 1155, and his remains, along with those of a royal princess, Cecily of York (died 1507), second daughter of King Edward IV of England and godmother of Henry VIII, still lie on the site of the mediaeval monastery, as do other important personages.

[7] A nineteenth-century French law banned religious orders except by special dispensation, though its application varied with changes of government.

As a precaution, Abbot Paul Delatte (1848–1937) of the Benedictine Solesmes Abbey had sent a monk to England to look for a house to shelter the community.

The founder of Solesmes, Prosper Guéranger, had originally thought of England as a possible place of refuge should the community have to go into exile.

Moreover, since 1896, at the invitation of the former Empress Eugénie, the Solesmes Benedictines had taken over as a priory the former Premonstratensian house of Farnborough Abbey, which sheltered the tomb of Napoleon III.

[citation needed] The first monks arrived at Quarr Abbey House from Appuldurcombe on 25 June 1907 to prepare the grounds and the beginnings of a kitchen garden.

The rest of the monks came from Appuldurcombe and, in April 1911, work began on the Abbey church which was quickly completed and consecrated on 12 October 1912.

It was built with tall pointed towers of glowing Flemish brick, adding a touch of Byzantium to the skyline.

[13] Benedictine monks strive to dedicate their lives to the glory of God, and to the Rule of Saint Benedict, which sees their time structured between prayer, work and community life.

Tony Hendra devotes much of his 2004 memoir, Father Joe: The Man Who Saved My Soul, to his experiences at Quarr Abbey.

In his 1929 memoir, Good-Bye to All That, Robert Graves describes visiting Quarr Abbey whilst recovering on the Isle of Wight during the Great War.

The fresh grains, vegetables and fruits at the Abbey helped change Graves' previously held negative views of Catholicism.