The Convent of Our Lady
The Order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel
The Carmel of Hoogstraet was established in Holland in 1678 for English girls who wished to follow a religious vocation but were forbidden from doing so in their home country by penal law.
By 1870 the penal laws had been abolished and Roman Catholics had been emancipated in British law. That year a generous bequest allowed the community to plan a permanent return to England and a suitable site was chosen in the south of England. Charles Alban Buckler, an eminent Roman Catholic architect, was appointed and building began in August 1870. Although it was intended that the community should stay in France until the convent was completed, the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War made an early move prudent and so a house was rented near to the new convent site for £120 p.a.
Unfortunately the project overran before the chapel could be built and the nuns refused to incur the debt necessary for its completion. Instead the preparatory was arranged as a chapel and choir with a grate between separating the nuns from the public worship area. The gardens were stocked with fruit trees and vegetable plants imported from France and after a public viewing of the premises the nuns took possession of the convent on 28th April 1872 and the first mass was said on 4th May. The nuns were part of a closed order, aiming to live a life of unceasing prayer, 'nourished supremely by faith, hope and charity' and spent much of their time praying or dispensing alms.
In 1930 a generous legacy allowed the building of a new church, done under direction of Sebastian Pugin-Pewell, grandson of the famous Augustus Welby Pugin. The chapel was roughly L-Shaped, with the areas for the public and the nuns at right angles both facing the high altar. An iron grille separated the nun's choir from the public congregation, maintaining the closedness of the order.
In the 1970s the number of nuns had grown from 12 to 26. This was the peak of the community's prosperity, augmented by efforts to become self-sufficient by making and selling altar breads throughout the country.
By the early 1990s numbers were declining and the carmel found the convent too large for its needs. With some reluctance, it was decided that the community should merge with another in Cornwall and that the buildings should be sold.
On December 10, 1994 the convent was sold for £650,000 to a recruitment agency who used it to house EU migrant workers who picked crops on neighbouring farms. This practice ceased in 2007-8 and a year later a deliberately started fire tore through the chapel leaving it roofless and derelict. To date no-one has been brought to justice.
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The site is in a poor state; littered with rubbish and scrap it is fast becoming a target for vandals who have broken many of the windows and smashed holes in the gates. Before the fire there were plans to convert it into a business centre but the status of these plans now is unknown. The main convent building is secure and appears to be regularly re-secured. Hopefully it will stay that way, since the last thing anyone wants to see is more damage.
