Blackpool

The Blackpool Collection

This first SHCJ community in Blackpool arrived in the town in the autumn of 1856. It was formed initially of the Sisters who had left Rupert House in Liverpool after the crisis caused by Sr Emily Bowles’ property purchase. The sisters initially lived and taught from a house in Queens Square before renting a second property, Raikes Hall, which allowed greater expansion space for the boarding school which numbered 21 pupils. The lease of Raikes Hall was for 7 years, beginning  in December 1859, as the Sacristy Journal tells us. By the late 1860s however, the SHCJ found themselves once again searching for a property. After the local Bishop expressed his desire for the SHCJ to remain in Blackpool and several possibilities fell through, Cornelia resolved to build a new property on the only high ground available, a piece of land on the Laton Estate she christened ‘Layton Hill’.

Management of this ambitious project fell to Sister Gertrude Day who became superior of the Blackpool community in 1861 aged only 22. Through Cornelia’s vision and Sr Gertrude’s competent superintendence of the project, the Layton Hill Holy Child Convent School was built. By 2^nd July 1870, the Blackpool Community arrived in their brand-new accommodation and the life of this well-loved school began.

For over 100 years, Layton Hill taught generations of pupils. In the early 1900s, Layton Hill was the last school an unruly girl would attend until the SHCJ sisters’ trust and good humour won her over. She later became an SHCJ sister and Superior of the English (later European Province), Mother Mary Paul O’Connor.

 Following the courageous spirit of Cornelia’s decision to construct Layton Hill itself, Mother Philomena Mulgrew went against social convention when she decided to amalgamate the boarding school and day school in 1929 and made Layton Hill the first direct grant grammar school in the Blackpool locality. During the Second World War, Layton Hill continued to meet the challenges of the times and hosted both the Notre Dame School - who had come to escape the bombing raids on Manchester - as well as the student sisters of Cavendish Square Training College. 

The SHCJ also continued to teach at the Parish school of Talbot Road (renamed Sacred Heart Parish School in 1951) and took on St Kentigern’s from when the parish was established in 1904 until 1972 when the last SHCJ teachers left. Mother Mary Edward McEntree taught at Talbot Road/Sacred Heart for 33 years, using her musical talents to inspire her young pupils while also being a dogged advocate for the over-crowded school. Mother Mary Pauline taught for many years at St Kentigern’s. As a past pupil Cecilia Whelan remembered, she made the children ‘delicious lemonade’ for sold halfpence in the summer and in the winter, warming hot chocolate for a penny.

The fact that a great number of SHCJ nuns and Holy child school staff were once pupils of Layton Hill is testament to the ‘happy, cheerful ordered atmosphere’ as Claire Hewitson - a pupil and later a teacher of Layton Hill – put it. In one last act of generosity, this Holy Child school and convent that had welcomed so many was sold to the diocese to provide buildings for St Mary’s, a comprehensive school formed from St Catherine’s, St Thomas’, St Joseph’s and  Layton Hill in 1982, the largest Catholic school in England. The funds from this sale allowed the SHCJ to establish the Layton Hill Trust which had provided grants to educational charities.