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copyright © J.Middleton
Portslade Manor / St Marye’s Convent was photographed on 20 March 2014. The exterior is covered with what was called Roman cement, which was popular at the time the manor was built. But it does make the building look austere. The cross on top of the chapel can be seen on the right. |
The title of Portslade Manor belonged to two separate buildings. The first one dated back to Norman times and is a very rare example. Unfortunately, in the nineteenth century the owners decided to destroy it some time before 1840. But they did not obliterate everything and what remained became a Grade II* listed building on 19 July 1950. Today the ruins have been stabilised and restored and people can visit it by arrangement; the official opening ceremony took place on 17 March 1995. (See Portslade's Norman Manor page)
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| copyright © D. Sharp The ruins of Portslade's Grade II* Norman Manor House in the south-west corner of the Convent (now Emmaus) |
Meanwhile a ‘new’ Portslade Manor was built in 1807 and it is the building still in existence today.
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| copyright © J.Middleton This close-up shows the elegant ironwork at the south-west angle of the house, to the left is a Victorian folly built from masonry taken from Portslade's Norman Manor House ruins. |
From Manor House to St Marye’s Convent
Miss Kathleen Nelson purchased Portslade Manor and gave it
to the Order of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God who took up residence on
24 April 1904 and thereafter the building became known as St Marye’s Convent.
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| copyright © G.Osborne With thanks to Mr G. Osborne for granting permission for the reproduction of the above photograph from his private collection. The Manor Road entrance to St Marye's Convent in the 1950s |
In June 2014 Pope Francis proclaimed that Frances Taylor had lived a life of 'heroic virtue', which sets her on the path to sainthood.
In October 1904 St Marye’s
Laundry was registered as a factory under the Factory and Workshops Act 1901.
Before the chapel was built, Mass was celebrated in the large community room,
which was reached by ten steps.
In the 1920s the nuns were given
a Buick motor-car but they soon removed the top so that they could more easily
transport hay and other commodities.
St Marye’s Convent owned other
land in addition to the grounds surrounding the house, the garden reached by a
tunnel and the field to the south of Manor Road between Easthill Park and
Portslade Lodge. The other land consisted of four fields north of Drove Road
and from time to time Portslade Council would cast envious eyes in their
direction. In 1932 the council wanted to use some of the land to provide
housing but instead they received a frosty letter dated 19 April 1932 from the
Sister Superior saying they had no intention of disposing of their land.
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| copyright © J.Middleton The field between Easthill Park and Portslade Lodge was photographed on 2 August 2002. |
But the idea did not go away. In June 1936 the same fields were the basis of a stormy debate at a Portslade Council meeting. Some members were of the opinion the land should be acquired for public purposes including allotments, housing, public open spaces and a burial ground.
But the nuns were unwilling to sell and Mr H. Durrant commented that if compulsory purchase were resorted to, it would stir up a hornet’s nest. Besides there was other land available. Mr A.J. Campbell opposed the acquisition of the fields. He stated the convent cared for 80 girls who were ‘either mentally defective or morally degenerate’.
The fields were used not just for
grazing cows but also to teach the girls agriculture and dairy work. (These
fields were eventually sold but not until the 1970s and Peter Gladwin School
was built on one).
The large wing housing the girls
was built on the north side of the convent while a chapel was erected on the
east side. Both were formally opened on 11 January 1933.
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| copyright © J.Middleton The flint structure is not part of the Norman Manor House. It is a folly created in Victorian times from some of the material used in the old house. In the background can be seen the new wing built in the 1930s. |
It was said that during the Second World War some bombs fell on or near the convent. On 8 February 1946 during a fierce gale, a corrugated iron roof blew off a cycle shelter at the convent and struck a passing car, causing head injuries to the driver.
The nuns wore full black habits
with only their faces and hands visible. They were obliged to keep silence most
of the time. Like the girls, the nuns too slept in dormitories in the early
days. They had no idea what was taking place in the world outside because no
newspapers were allowed and there was no radio. The nuns and the girls attended
Mass at 7 a.m. every morning.
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| copyright © G.Osborne With thanks to Mr G. Osborne for granting permission for the reproduction of the above photograph from his private collection. St Marye's Convent in the 1950s |
But for Sister Leila who arrived
at St Marye’s Convent in the 1930s, her most vivid memory sixty years later was
the endless scrubbing, as if cleanliness really were next to Godliness. Sister
Leila said ‘I’ll never forget the scrubbing of floors and the poor sore knees
but we didn’t complain.’
Some much-needed light relief was
provided by the concerts staged by the girls and by the celebration of the
great Christian festivals. The Feast of Corpus Christi in the summer was a
great event when there would be a grand procession starting off from the church
of Our Lady, Star of the Sea and St Denis in Church Road, Portslade, up to the
convent. All the Catholic children took part, the young girls wearing white
dresses, the priest in fine vestments, the server with swinging censer – it was
indeed a sight to behold and this event continued until the 1960s. Today,
looking at the congested conditions at the Southern Cross crossroads, it is
hard to imagine it happening so recently.
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copyright ©
D.Sharp
In this unique photograph taken from 81 Trafalgar Road in the late 1940s, the Corpus Christi procession can be seen passing the Battle of Trafalgar on its way to St Marye’s Convent. At the front of procession are acolytes with a processional cross and candles, followed by young children, a group of nuns, a large group of girls in white dresses supervised by a nun and the monstrance and canopy is just coming into view, a policeman is standing in the middle of the road with his bicycle to stop any cars coming out from Victoria Road. The shops in Trafalgar Road are hanging out bunting and flags to mark this special day. |
Mary Adams found convent life
very hard, not that she had ever been consulted about being there. She was born
in 1930 and came from a broken home, being dispatched to boarding school at the
tender age of four. She arrived at St Marye’s Convent in 1947, having been told
that she would stay for two years in order to learn domestic skills. After that
time she hoped to find a job and also perhaps a husband. But her mother thought
otherwise and insisted she stay on at the convent; she remained for 21 long,
hard-working years. Her mother continued to hold sway over her life. For
instance, in 1963 when Mary was enjoying her domestic duties in the priest’s
house, her mother was furious about the arrangement and insisted she stayed in
the convent.
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| copyright © G.Osborne With thanks to Mr G. Osborne for granting permission for the reproduction of the above photograph from his private collection. Our Lady, Star of the Sea and St Denis in Church Road, Portslade (The church was built in 1911 and closed in 1992 and was demolished in the same year) |
Mary Adams used to get up at 5
a.m. to let around 200 hens into their run. There were six cows to look after
and four large fields where potatoes, cauliflowers, parsnips, Swedes and
sprouts were grown. Although there were male gardeners, Mr King and his son,
there was still a great deal of work to be done by the girls. Haymaking was
particularly hard work with old-fashioned pitchforks and it was a hot day’s
toil from 8.30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Discipline was harsh and after several warnings
because she had failed to clean her Wellington boots properly after work, Mary
was made to kneel with the offending boots strung around her neck in the middle
of the dining room for three entire meal times.
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| copyright © G.Osborne With thanks to Mr G. Osborne for granting permission for the reproduction of the above photograph from his private collection. St Marye's Convent and Chapel in the 1950s |
It must be stated that in the early days a convent was
sometimes used as a dumping ground for illegitimate girls to save their
families from embarrassment or for girls who had given birth outside marriage.
At St Marye’s there were rumours that some girls came from high-born families
but there is no way of ascertaining if there was any truth in the matter or
whether it was an over-active rumour mill at work.
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| copyright © J.Middleton This charming grotto was created in honour of Our Lady of Lourdes – you can just see the statue of Our Lady with St Bernadette kneeling at the side. |
Major change came to St Marye’s
in the 1960s when the convent became a residential home for women with learning
difficulties. No longer was the discipline so harsh and the girls were not
expected to do all the domestic work by themselves. They were each given £6 a
month for pocket money and outings and holidays were arranged. Some of them
were not Roman Catholic and those that were Anglican were allowed to attend
Sunday services at St Nicolas’s Church, next door to the convent.
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| copyright © D.Sharp A statue of Our Lady next to St Marye's former Chapel and against the boundary wall of Manor Road. (this statue was once decorated in bright colours, now almost faded away by weathering) |
For the nuns too, it was all
change. The nun’s traditional habit was consigned to history (to the regret of
some it must be said) and they wore more convenient and comfortable clothing
but kept a short veil that was less cumbersome. The nuns were also allotted
their own bedrooms and they were allowed to hold conversations.
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| copyright © G.Osborne With thanks to Mr G. Osborne for granting permission for the reproduction of the above photograph from his private collection. The convent grounds in the 1950s with St Nicolas Church in the background. |
In 1972 there were over 100 women
living at the convent of all ages over sixteen. There were seventeen nuns and
Sister Marissa, Mother Superior, was voted Catholic Woman of the Year. Three of the sisters taught at St Mary’s School, Portslade.
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| copyright © D.Sharp The statue of Our Lady & Child formerly stood in St Marye's Chapel was presented to St Nicolas Church, Portslade in 1996 by the nuns. |
In June 1991 it was stated that
there were only eight nuns left at the convent where once there had been a
thriving community of 32 sisters. Sister Margaret, Mother Superior, was brought
over from Dublin by her Order to see what ought to be done. Sister Margaret was
unlike the traditional nun of former days because she enjoyed an occasional
glass of wine, besides listening to Simon and Garfunkel and playing tennis and
badminton. Among the nuns still resident at St Marye’s were Sister Bernadette,
Sister Cecilia, Sister Rose and Sister Bertrand. There was some talk about
moving out because all the sisters were aged over 40 and three were in their
seventies.
On 25 November 1994 Mother
General from London arrived at St Marye’s to inform everyone that the convent
would close in two years’ time. The Summer Fete had been a Portslade
institution for over 50 years and the last one was held on 22 June 1996. Soon
afterwards, the nuns left Portslade.
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| copyright © D. Sharp The well maintained Nun's Cemetery within the gardens of the east side of Manor Road |
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| copyright © D. Sharp The grave of the Convent's dog 'Budge' who died in 1912, in the background is the former Lord of the Manor's gateway to St Nicolas Church. |
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In November 1996 it was stated
that Sussex Emmaus was negotiating to purchase St Marye’s Convent for around
£500,000. Churches in Sussex donated £20,000 to help set it up and later there
was also a grant from the Government’s Single Regeneration Fund. In February
1997 Emmaus moved in.
Further Reading
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| copyright © D. Sharp The statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Child in front of the main building |
In the above history of St Marye’s Convent there are only very brief details of Mary Adams' life, QueenSpark Books have now made her biography in all its moving details available on-line in PDF form to download. See the following Link for details to download :- Mary Adams – Those Lost Years.
Since 1972 QueenSpark Books has been gathering, preserving and making accessible our city’s history, telling untold stories and capturing real life experiences from a diverse range of local communities, for further information of this exciting and on going project :- see the QueenSpark website
See also Our Lady, Star of the Sea & St Denis Portslade and the former Convent of the Sacred Heart Hove
Thanks are due to Mr G. Osborne for allowing me to reproduce six of his wonderful photographs
Adams (Mary) Those Lost Years (1995) QueenSpark
Argus
Middleton.J Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade
Copyright © J.Middleton 2014