Bar Convent
Encyclopedia
The Convent of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin at Micklegate Bar, York
, better known as Bar Convent, is the oldest surviving Roman Catholic convent
in England
, established in 1686. The laws of England at this time prohibited the foundation of Catholic convents and as a result of this, the convent was both established and operated in secret. Frances Bedingfeld
, a member of the Sisters of Loreto
(also known as the IBVM), signed the deeds for the land the convent was to be built on on 5 November 1686 under the alias Frances Long. The Convent is now part of the Congregation of Jesus.
, a fervent Catholic who declared "we must have a school for our daughters". Gascoigne even went as far as providing a gift of £450, part of which purchased a property on the Convent site and a boarding school, and day school, for Catholic girls was set up at the site by the nuns.
The order was a target for frequent discrimination, leading in 1694 to the incarceration of Mother Frances and her great niece in Ousebridge Gaol
. They were released shortly after but two years later, in 1696, the house was attacked and severely damaged by an angry mob. The engraving of St Michael
over the front door is to commemorate this, with a local legend stating that St Michael appeared over the house riding a horse and the mob, terrified, fled the scene.
The convent later came under attack from Doctor Jaques Sterne, a religious campaigner who ordered the convent be shut down and the children at the school sent home. The situation culminated in Mother Hodshon and a colleague being summoned before the Spiritual Court to answer charges of not receiving holy communion
at Holy Trinity Church
. The case fell apart, largely due to no service being carried out that day and was thrown out. Doctor Sterne would go on to become a staunch ally and supporter of the Convent following this incident.
Mother Bedingfeld was recalled to Germany
in 1699 and the original intention was that Mary Portington would succeed her. However, a family lawsuit
made it politically difficult for Portington to take the post and the role fell instead to Dorothy Bedingfield (née Baston), whose reign coincided with a period of intense poverty and this, combined with her own unpopularity meant that her 34 year reign, was turbulent.
Facade
that added an extra set of rooms to the front of the house. A copy of the licence, granted by Lord Peter Johnson, then Mayor, can be viewed in the Convent's archives.
The most significant addition to the new Convent was a Chapel. Mother Aspinal initially wanted the design to reflect Roman churches and hired Thomas Atkinson
, the architect responsible for the Neo Gothic
additions to Bishopthorpe Palace
to do the work. However, due to the continuing hostility to Catholicism, Atkinson took the decision to modify the initial design, incorporating it into the structure of the house itself.
Instead of the dome Mother Aspinal intended, the dome was concealed beneath a slate roof, meaning it was hidden from the street. Atkinson also built eight different escape routes into the Chapel, to ensure that if the building was stormed, the worshippers would be able to escape. The Chapel was completed in 1769.
The passing of the First Catholic Repeal Act
in 1778 made life easier for the Convent as it allowed them to legally practice their religion and legalised Catholic schools. This led to a new climate of religious freedom within Britain that allowed the nuns to wear the religious habit
for the first time since the creation of the Convent. The passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791
in turn led to the Bar Convent being granted a licence to act as a public place of worship for the first time in its history.
During the Napoleonic Wars
the Convent found itself providing shelter to émigré
priests from the continent. Mother Superior
Catherine Rouby, the Superior at the time, also provided shelter to fugitive nuns including Carmelites
from Brabant
, Canonesses
of the Holy Sepulchre
from Liège
and Poor Clares from Dunkirk.
Émigré families also sent their daughters to the school and several stayed on to become nuns in the community. The conflict and its aftermath led to the Convent being cut off from the Institute of the Blessed Virgin in Germany. As a result, Mother Superior Elizabeth Coyney petitioned the Pope
to have the Convent put under the authority of the Northern Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Gibson.
, foundress of the Sisters of Charity
was a novitiate there for three years (1812–1815). The order continued to maintain a school on the site until 1985, when control was handed over to the Middlesbrough diocese
and re-named as All Saints School.
The convent was bombed during World War II
, leading to the death of five nuns and the destruction of the East Wing.
The main building of the Convent is three storeys tall, with an attic, facing directly onto Blossom Street. The front façade
has seven bay
s, the central three of which stand slightly forward from the others. There are 12-pane sash windows on the ground floor. The one which is directly above the doorcase is set in a shouldered surround with a balustrade below the window and a moulded cornice
above it.
At the rear of the building, there is a 3-storey 3-bay pent-roofed extension which houses a square clock tower. The tower itself is crowned with an ogee
roofed open cupola
and timber columns. The schoolroom block of the main building is 2 storeys tall and has a 3 bay front. The windows are once again 12 pane sashes with differences in size and moulding between the first and second floors. All the windows have flat arches of rubbed brick.
. It was connected c1970 to the pediment
clock on the building's frontage, on Blossom Street. The Great Parlour, which features paintings of some of the notable early sisters of the Convent, is located to the right of the ground floor and has a marble fireplace with round headed alcoves to each side.
and a staircase. The ground floor has two windows containing 4 round-headed Gothic
lights while the first floor has three windows with central pivoted lights.
The Chapel's interior houses a stone staircase with square iron balusters that leads up to the Chapel on the first floor. The Chapel itself contains a domed sanctuary
, a nave
with three bays and a north and south transept
. The sanctuary is a domed rotunda
with eight detached and fluted columns and a frieze
depicting features such as vine leaves, urns and posies. The Dome itself has eight bays, each of which features garlands of various fruits and foliage and is topped by a painted glass lantern.
The South transept leads into the Lady Chapel which is lit by a small dome and cupola. Beneath the North transept is a square space which may once have served as a Priest hole
. The altar
dates from 1969 but uses scrolled legs featuring winged cherub heads from the 18th Century original. Behind the altar is a 20th century reredos
which is topped by 18th Century carved figures of Saint Jerome
, Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory which support a Spanish Ivory crucifix.
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...
, better known as Bar Convent, is the oldest surviving Roman Catholic convent
Convent
A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, established in 1686. The laws of England at this time prohibited the foundation of Catholic convents and as a result of this, the convent was both established and operated in secret. Frances Bedingfeld
Frances Bedingfeld
Frances Bedingfeld, I.B.V.M., was a Mother Superior of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary in England. She came from a family which had remained loyal to the Pope....
, a member of the Sisters of Loreto
Sisters of Loreto
The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, more commonly known as the Loreto Sisters , is a women's Catholic religious order founded by an Englishwoman, Mary Ward, in 1609 at Saint-Omer in northern France...
(also known as the IBVM), signed the deeds for the land the convent was to be built on on 5 November 1686 under the alias Frances Long. The Convent is now part of the Congregation of Jesus.
Origin and early years
The creation of the Convent was inspired at least in part by Sir Thomas GascoigneSir Thomas Gascoigne, 2nd Baronet
Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 2nd Baronet was an English Baronet and member of the Gascoigne family.Gascoigne was a Roman Catholic and was accused of conspiracy.He left £450 Sir Thomas Gascoigne, 2nd Baronet (1596–1686) was an English Baronet and member of the Gascoigne family.Gascoigne was a Roman...
, a fervent Catholic who declared "we must have a school for our daughters". Gascoigne even went as far as providing a gift of £450, part of which purchased a property on the Convent site and a boarding school, and day school, for Catholic girls was set up at the site by the nuns.
The order was a target for frequent discrimination, leading in 1694 to the incarceration of Mother Frances and her great niece in Ousebridge Gaol
Bridges of York
There are nine bridges across the River Ouse within the city of York, England, and sixteen smaller bridges across the narrower River Foss.-Bridges over the Ouse:...
. They were released shortly after but two years later, in 1696, the house was attacked and severely damaged by an angry mob. The engraving of St Michael
St Michael
St Michael was a brand that was owned and used by Marks & Spencer from 1928 until 2000.-History:The brand was introduced by Simon Marks in 1928, after his father and co-founder of Marks & Spencer, Michael Marks. By 1950, virtually all goods were sold under the St Michael brand...
over the front door is to commemorate this, with a local legend stating that St Michael appeared over the house riding a horse and the mob, terrified, fled the scene.
The convent later came under attack from Doctor Jaques Sterne, a religious campaigner who ordered the convent be shut down and the children at the school sent home. The situation culminated in Mother Hodshon and a colleague being summoned before the Spiritual Court to answer charges of not receiving holy communion
Eucharist
The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...
at Holy Trinity Church
Holy Trinity Church
-Australia:*Holy Trinity Church, Adelaide* Holy Trinity Church, Bacchus Marsh*Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Launceston, Tasmania-England:*Holy Trinity Church, Balsham, Cambridgeshire*Holy Trinity Church, Bembridge, Isle of Wight...
. The case fell apart, largely due to no service being carried out that day and was thrown out. Doctor Sterne would go on to become a staunch ally and supporter of the Convent following this incident.
Mother Bedingfeld was recalled to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in 1699 and the original intention was that Mary Portington would succeed her. However, a family lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
made it politically difficult for Portington to take the post and the role fell instead to Dorothy Bedingfield (née Baston), whose reign coincided with a period of intense poverty and this, combined with her own unpopularity meant that her 34 year reign, was turbulent.
18th century
Under Mother Ann Aspinal, the convent was expanded and rebuilt, culminating in the original property being effectively demolished and rebuilt with the order moving to a neighbouring house for two years. The foundation stone for the new house was laid on 4 March 1766 and the house was covered by December 1768. Mother Aspinal also presided over the construction of what is described in the building licence as, "A new front wall to her house". What Mother Aspinal built was an entire extra level to the house, a GeorgianGeorgian architecture
Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1720 and 1840. It is eponymous for the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I of Great Britain, George II of Great Britain, George III of the United...
Facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
that added an extra set of rooms to the front of the house. A copy of the licence, granted by Lord Peter Johnson, then Mayor, can be viewed in the Convent's archives.
Thomas Atkinson (architect)
Thomas Atkinson was an English architect, best remembered for remodelling Bishopthorpe Palace in the Gothic Revival style.- Life :...
, the architect responsible for the Neo Gothic
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
additions to Bishopthorpe Palace
Bishopthorpe Palace
Bishopthorpe Palace is a stately home and historic house at Bishopthorpe south of York in the City of York unitary authority and ceremonial county of North Yorkshire, England...
to do the work. However, due to the continuing hostility to Catholicism, Atkinson took the decision to modify the initial design, incorporating it into the structure of the house itself.
Instead of the dome Mother Aspinal intended, the dome was concealed beneath a slate roof, meaning it was hidden from the street. Atkinson also built eight different escape routes into the Chapel, to ensure that if the building was stormed, the worshippers would be able to escape. The Chapel was completed in 1769.
The passing of the First Catholic Repeal Act
Papists Act 1778
The Papists Act 1778 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain and was the first Act for Catholic Relief. Later in 1778 It was also enacted by the Irish parliament....
in 1778 made life easier for the Convent as it allowed them to legally practice their religion and legalised Catholic schools. This led to a new climate of religious freedom within Britain that allowed the nuns to wear the religious habit
Religious habit
A religious habit is a distinctive set of garments worn by members of a religious order. Traditionally some plain garb recognisable as a religious habit has also been worn by those leading the religious eremitic and anachoritic life, although in their case without conformity to a particular uniform...
for the first time since the creation of the Convent. The passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791
Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791
The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1791 relieving Roman Catholics of certain political, educational, and economic disabilities. It admitted Roman Catholics to the practise of law, permitted the exercise of their religion, and the existence of...
in turn led to the Bar Convent being granted a licence to act as a public place of worship for the first time in its history.
During the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
the Convent found itself providing shelter to émigré
Émigré
Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....
priests from the continent. Mother Superior
Abbess
An abbess is the female superior, or mother superior, of a community of nuns, often an abbey....
Catherine Rouby, the Superior at the time, also provided shelter to fugitive nuns including Carmelites
Carmelites
The Order of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel or Carmelites is a Catholic religious order perhaps founded in the 12th century on Mount Carmel, hence its name. However, historical records about its origin remain uncertain...
from Brabant
Duchy of Brabant
The Duchy of Brabant was a historical region in the Low Countries. Its territory consisted essentially of the three modern-day Belgian provinces of Flemish Brabant, Walloon Brabant and Antwerp, the Brussels-Capital Region and most of the present-day Dutch province of North Brabant.The Flag of...
, Canonesses
Canonesses
A canoness is a member of a religious community of women living a simple life. Many communities observe the monastic rule of Saint Augustine. The name corresponds to the male equivalent, a canon. The origin and rules are common to both...
of the Holy Sepulchre
Canonesses Regular of the Holy Sepulchre
The Canonesses Regular of the Holy Sepulchre are a Catholic female religious order founded in the 14th century. They were the female branch of the ancient military Order of that name, and they follow the Rule of St...
from Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
and Poor Clares from Dunkirk.
Émigré families also sent their daughters to the school and several stayed on to become nuns in the community. The conflict and its aftermath led to the Convent being cut off from the Institute of the Blessed Virgin in Germany. As a result, Mother Superior Elizabeth Coyney petitioned the Pope
Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...
to have the Convent put under the authority of the Northern Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Gibson.
20th century
Mother Mary AikenheadMary Aikenhead
Mother Mary Frances Aikenhead was born in Daunt's Square off Grand Parade, Cork, Ireland. She was the founder of the Roman Catholic religious order the Religious Sisters of Charity and of St...
, foundress of the Sisters of Charity
Sisters of Charity
Many religious communities have the term Sisters of Charity as part of their name. The rule of Saint Vincent for the Daughters of Charity has been adopted and adapted by at least sixty founders of religious orders around the world in the subsequent centuries....
was a novitiate there for three years (1812–1815). The order continued to maintain a school on the site until 1985, when control was handed over to the Middlesbrough diocese
Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough is a Latin Rite Roman Catholic diocese based in Middlesbrough, England and is part of the province of Liverpool. It was founded on 20 December 1878, with the splitting of the Diocese of Beverley which had covered all of Yorkshire...
and re-named as All Saints School.
The convent was bombed during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, leading to the death of five nuns and the destruction of the East Wing.
Exterior
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
has seven bay
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...
s, the central three of which stand slightly forward from the others. There are 12-pane sash windows on the ground floor. The one which is directly above the doorcase is set in a shouldered surround with a balustrade below the window and a moulded cornice
Cornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
above it.
At the rear of the building, there is a 3-storey 3-bay pent-roofed extension which houses a square clock tower. The tower itself is crowned with an ogee
Ogee
An ogee is a curve , shaped somewhat like an S, consisting of two arcs that curve in opposite senses, so that the ends are parallel....
roofed open cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
and timber columns. The schoolroom block of the main building is 2 storeys tall and has a 3 bay front. The windows are once again 12 pane sashes with differences in size and moulding between the first and second floors. All the windows have flat arches of rubbed brick.
Interior
The Entrance Hall to the main building was initially built as an open courtyard but has since been enclosed and Victorian tiles added. The court has a decorative tiled floor and a glass roof supported by iron trusses which are, in turn, supported by iron columns. The court also houses a clock, designed by Henry HindleyHenry Hindley
Henry Hindley was an 18th century clockmaker and maker of scientific instruments. He was the inventor of a screw-cutting lathe. He built a clock for York Minster, England, where he apparently lived for much of his life, in 1752....
. It was connected c1970 to the pediment
Pediment
A pediment is a classical architectural element consisting of the triangular section found above the horizontal structure , typically supported by columns. The gable end of the pediment is surrounded by the cornice moulding...
clock on the building's frontage, on Blossom Street. The Great Parlour, which features paintings of some of the notable early sisters of the Convent, is located to the right of the ground floor and has a marble fireplace with round headed alcoves to each side.
Chapel
The Chapel block is two storeys tall and has two attics. It has a 5-bay front end that is masked by extensions housing the Lady ChapelLady chapel
A Lady chapel, also called Mary chapel or Marian chapel, is a traditional English term for a chapel inside a cathedral, basilica, or large church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary...
and a staircase. The ground floor has two windows containing 4 round-headed Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
lights while the first floor has three windows with central pivoted lights.
The Chapel's interior houses a stone staircase with square iron balusters that leads up to the Chapel on the first floor. The Chapel itself contains a domed sanctuary
Church tabernacle
A tabernacle is the fixed, locked box in which, in some Christian churches, the Eucharist is "reserved" . A less obvious container, set into the wall, is called an aumbry....
, a nave
Nave
In Romanesque and Gothic Christian abbey, cathedral basilica and church architecture, the nave is the central approach to the high altar, the main body of the church. "Nave" was probably suggested by the keel shape of its vaulting...
with three bays and a north and south transept
Transept
For the periodical go to The Transept.A transept is a transverse section, of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In Christian churches, a transept is an area set crosswise to the nave in a cruciform building in Romanesque and Gothic Christian church architecture...
. The sanctuary is a domed rotunda
Rotunda (architecture)
A rotunda is any building with a circular ground plan, sometimes covered by a dome. It can also refer to a round room within a building . The Pantheon in Rome is a famous rotunda. A Band Rotunda is a circular bandstand, usually with a dome...
with eight detached and fluted columns and a frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
depicting features such as vine leaves, urns and posies. The Dome itself has eight bays, each of which features garlands of various fruits and foliage and is topped by a painted glass lantern.
The South transept leads into the Lady Chapel which is lit by a small dome and cupola. Beneath the North transept is a square space which may once have served as a Priest hole
Priest hole
"Priest hole" is the term given to hiding places for priests built into many of the principal Catholic houses of England during the period when Catholics were persecuted by law in England, from the beginning of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I in 1558....
. The altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
dates from 1969 but uses scrolled legs featuring winged cherub heads from the 18th Century original. Behind the altar is a 20th century reredos
Reredos
thumb|300px|right|An altar and reredos from [[St. Josaphat's Roman Catholic Church|St. Josaphat Catholic Church]] in [[Detroit]], [[Michigan]]. This would be called a [[retable]] in many other languages and countries....
which is topped by 18th Century carved figures of Saint Jerome
Saint Jerome
Saint Jerome is a Christian church father, best known for translating the Bible into Latin.Saint Jerome may also refer to:*Jerome of Pavia , Bishop of Pavia...
, Saint Ambrose, Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory which support a Spanish Ivory crucifix.