Syon House, Bridgettine Convent

 

The Bridgettine nuns who emigrated from Lisbon, and are supposed to be the only remnant of that once celebrated order, as well as the last existing English convent of females, have collected themselves together again, and established a boarding school for young ladies of the Roman Catholic religion at Peckham, called after the name of their convent, Sion House.

The Environs of London: pt.1. Surrey by Daniel Lysons (1811)

 

 

A nunnery stood where Peckham Police station is today

The Bridgettine Order was founded in Sweden in 1378 and was introduced into England in 1406 when the daughter of Henry IV married Eric XIII of Sweden. The first monastery was at Syon in Middlesex and the foundation stone was laid by Henry V in 1415. A few Swedish nuns came over to assist with the foundation, but it was predominantly English.

With the dissolution of the monasteries during the reign of Henry VIII, the nuns went to Dermond in Flanders. When Queen Mary came to the throne the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cardinal Pole, found them there and restored them to Syon Monastery. With Queen Elizabeth I on the throne, the convent was again dissolved and the nuns returned to Dermond, taking with them the keys of Syon House and the iron cross from the top of the church.

On the Continent they were known as the English Nunnery because no girl was admitted who had not been born a subject of England. They wandered to several locations on the Continent and finally settled in Lisbon on 2 May 1594.The community remained at Lisbon until 1809 when the decision was made to return to England. Passports were granted but when they arrived at the ship a separation took place. Some of the nuns refused to proceed and returned to the convent in Lisbon, leaving their director Mr Castellet, the Abbess and nine nuns to seek refuge in England. They were Sr Mary Dorothy Halford (Abbess), Sr Mary Teresa Joyce, Sr Helen Bride, Sr Mary Clare Butt, Sr Elizabeth Farnes, Sr Frances Winefride Hillear, Sr Mary Gertrude Allison, Sr Monica Shimmell, Sr Bridget Ricketts and Sr Mary Hutchinson.

John Gage of Lincoln’s Inn, managed through his persevering exertions to get them an allowance from the government. This amounted to an annual sum for each nun – £40 for the Abbess and £30 for each of the others. The Vicar Apostolic of the London District, Dr Poynter, took an interest in their welfare and when Sr Mary Dorothy Halford resigned as Abbess, after consulting the nuns, Dr Poynter appointed Sr Elizabeth Farnes to replace her.

In 1811 they had a small house in Walworth, but subsequently a larger house in Peckham was purchased (now the site of Peckham Police Station), called Syon House after their original house. Here they received new novices, professed three choir nuns and acquired two or three lay sisters. They established a boarding school “for young ladies of the Roman Catholic Religion”, until they had financial problems, when they determined to break up the establishment and sell off their effects to satisfy their creditors.

Dr Poynter placed the youngest among the ten, and also surviving choir nuns who had been professed at Peckham, in different convents. Sr Bridget Ricketts went to Boulogne where she had friends and then went to Russia as a governess. Sr Mary Winefride Hutchinson retired to a Nunnery in Hammersmith and then went on to Bishop’s House, Winchester, where she died.

In the interim, three or four of the old nuns and one of the newly professed had died. These were buried at the end of the very long garden, and subsequently a greenhouse was built over the graves.

A house was procured in Clarendon Square, Somers Town, near the Catholic Chapel, where they remained for some time. They were later placed in a house at Cobridge, near Newcastle in Staffordshire by Dr Milner, the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District. Here Sr Mary Dorothy Halford died and Sr Monica Shimmel returned to Lisbon, where she also died. The Earl of Shrewsbury purchased their vestments, books and church plate, which cleared their debts. He was able to grant a pension to the surviving nuns and lay sisters who remained in Staffordshire.

The convent in Peckham became the property of a Mr John Dalton who demolished ten of the rooms, leaving himself with twenty-seven rooms and a several hundred feet of garden. In 1893 Peckham Police Station was built on the site.

The nuns left in Lisbon eventually came to England in 1861, and went first to Dorset and then to Devon, where at South Brent a Syon Convent exists to this day, with nuns of the Bridgettine Order

Joan Bond

Reprinted from Peckham Society News, Issue 101 (Autumn 2005)