For the first time in over 160 years, there are no Our Lady’s Abingdon pupils to be seen. The school closed suddenly over the summer, leaving families to seek new places – some already starting in local state schools, others still searching.
The closure also leaves behind a large site close to the town centre, including Barton Field, the school playing fields. With so many new houses being built nearby, there may well be debate about whether part of the grounds could still serve an educational purpose.
Our Lady’s Convent history stretches back to January 1860, when Sister Mary Elizabeth Rigby and two nuns from the Sisters of Mercy in Bermondsey came to Abingdon at the invitation of parish priest Revd Dr John Paul O’Toole. They were supported by Reverend Mother Clare Moore, recently returned from work with Florence Nightingale in the Crimea. The Sisters began in a Northcourt cottage, Joymount, then moved into villas on the current site in 1862. The first pupil enrolled in 1865, and in 1867 Sir George Bowyer gave land to allow the school to expand. By 1877, classrooms, music rooms, a dining hall and dormitories were in place.
For many years the convent was run by the Sisters of Mercy, remembered today in the churchyard of Our Lady and St Edmund Church.
In 2007 Our Lady’s Convent became a charitable company limited by guarantee and changed its name to Our Lady’s Abingdon School. Two years later, boys were admitted to the Senior School.
Now, as the new term begins without OLA, its long story has reached an abrupt halt.
It’s not just the pupils. The nuns will have to find another convent somewhere. There are not many around these days.
There are no nuns living there – they left years ago.
Sadly there have been no nuns there for many years.
It may not be unreasonable to wonder if the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth (and its parent Metropolitan Diocese / Church) will be the ultimate (10’s of millions?) “winner” here.
It’s a lot of real estate in a very real location. It may not be the vision that the Sisters of Mercy had in my mind back in 1860 but it might well be the reality for Abingdon.
A progressive and inclusive (church) organisation might offer the land back to the local community, having hosted and had it maintained by a school since 1860, before anyone living was alive, for the good of all. Let’s see what happens.
Is it too pessimistic to expect the money to leave Abingdon, let alone Oxfordshire (or Berkshire as it was then)?
OLC as a school is / was likely a charitable organisation. Who owns the freehold / leasehold of the land they paid to be and operated upon (for market rate £ or a peppercorn) will come out in the wash.
The freeholder, be they the School Receivers, the Catholic Church or a foresightful charitable trust, will be sat sitting on a nest egg.
The site was never owned by ‘the local community’ and cannot therefore be given ‘back’. It was owned by Sir George Bowyer who generously donated it in 1860 to the Sisters of Mercy for the purpose of Catholic education. Bowyer was a convert to the Catholic faith, and at that time Catholics in England were undergoing a ‘second spring’ after centuries of persecution following the Reformation. Bowyer met much anti-catholic hostility in his day: his other generous endowment, the church of Our Lady and St Edmund, was derided locally as ‘Bowyer’s folly’. But the initially small Catholic community in Abingdon grew. Today the church is full three times on a Sunday and also has weekday services – perhaps the largest Christian community in Abingdon. Fortunately, the bad old days of anti-catholicism are now mostly behind us, and today other churches have excellent ecumenical relations with Catholics.
It is sad that the closure of OLA seems to have provoked some anti-catholic comments even on this gentle blog. After decades of decline throughout the Western world since the upheavals of the 1960s, Catholicism in England has seen some modest growth in recent years. Here in Abingdon the St Edmund’s community has welcomed Catholics from Africa and Asia – the parts of the world where Christianity is growing, unlike in the West. It is to be hoped that the right of believers to educate their children in their faith (a fundamental human right) will be respected here in Abingdon.
better to educate children in reality based education, not teaching children that clearly made up things are real and to be lived by.
I don’t think there was anything particularly anti-Catholic in my post. It’s a shame any comment referencing religious organisations is quickly taken to be against religion, especially when religion often promotes tolerance and seeing the best, not the worst in people.
I was observing that the outcome of this debacle will likely be to the benefit of organisations outside of Abingdon and not to the former school community, St. Edmunds or the town. The Diocese of Portsmouth being the ultimate beneficiary is not an unreasonable starting assumption when the ownership is with a trust that will have rules and restrictions (possibly set by Bowyer himself) on what happens if the trust ever ceases to exist.
The underlying owners, whomever they may be, offering the land back to the community (as with Bowyer) does not need to mean transferring ownership. Some or all of the site could be turned into a facility for general / secular (or religious) use.
50p says most of it is sold off, for housing development and we end up with more children seeking school places in schools that are not growing or being built anywhere near as quickly as the houses will be…
Rudi’s description of the Catholic faith as ‘clearly made up thing’ rather illustrates my point about anti-Catholic comments on this blog. Rudi is of course free to insult any religion he/she likes, but I think most people would agree that reasoned argument and dialogue are preferable.
Cms repeats that the site of OLA should be given ‘back’ to ‘the community’, whatever that means – the town council? the county council? – when no such body has ever owned the site or the school. Cms now claims that this Catholic-owned property should be made over, at least partially, for secular use. Fortunately, the law protects the rights of Catholics, like other religions in this country, to own their property and use it for their own purposes. Demanding that Catholics have their property secularised is rather obviously anti-Catholic. George Bowyer wouldn’t have been surprised at such hostility, but one might hope for better things in the 21st century.
There does appear to be a very strong perception of persecution that is being inferred by the replies.
If it assists, I would have equally substituted Anglican, Methodist, Mormon, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim or any other denomination were they the religion with an interest. I would have made similar comments if it were the Masons (or similar organisations) too.
I perhaps should have made my comment more simplistic. In short: The ultimate owner (religious or secular) is likely to be tempted to cash in (to pay for shortfalls or projects elsewhere) and the use of the site (and the original benefaction / money) will be lost to the local community, Catholic or otherwise.
That is a sad thing, religion be praised or dismissed depending perspective, however one looks at it. A lot of the good works, building (physical and metaphorical) for generations to come and the foresight of our 19th Century forebears is being eroded by shortsighted, short term (often asset stripping) gain.
Both the Charities Commission filings and those required by Companies House will shed some light (but unlikely all) at some point in the next few years. By then the Developers will likely have had the CIL/S106 money allocated to the council’s project of the moment.
I can agree with cms that if the owners of the OLA site were to ignore George Bowyer’s intentions and to sell it for commercial development it would be a betrayal of his legacy. Abingdon Catholics of course hope that a way can be found for Catholic education to continue on this historic site, benefitting local believers and others who like the ethos of Catholic schools.
From today’s BBC article:
OLA’s buildings and land will return to the control of the Institute of Our Lady of Mercy, a catholic order based in Leeds, which founded the school in the 19th Century.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5yly3wxkkzo
Information is available for the Institute on the Charities Commission website. Fingers crossed for all concerned.