Maryvale Convent School (st Mary's College, Old Oscott)

[Aileen Dalton]

I and my four siblings all went to Maryvale, I spent 3 years of my time there in what was known as the huts, they were two classrooms inan old corrugated tin clad building inthe grounds of the school amongst the trees.We had a big roaring coal fire inthe winter,absolutely brilliant,no one ever got burned, no silly elf and safety nonsense then just common sense. The headmaster was Mr Wright know as skinhead,he then moved up the hill to run the new Cardinal Wiseman Secondary Modern School, and the Evil Mr.Hadlington took over Maryvale, horrible, horrible man. I enjoyed my time at Maryvale and my wonderful teacher teacher Sister Christopher, lots of memories.

I went to Maryvale school from 1942 to 1949. Ilived on Kingstanding Rd.
Mr Wright was the headmaster & Sister Joseph taught me.
I started school grade 1 in the old building on Old Oscott Rd and finnished in the one up in the walk with the big fire place and the big pear tree outside the door.
The road up between the convent & the old nuns burial ground was made of cobble stones and at the end of that road was our school playing fields. There was a stone wall around the school area and the church. Beside the church was the nuns convent and they had an orphanage for children up to six years of age. I used to help look after the little ones on the weekend and was allowed to take 2 children to my home at Christmas to choose a gift from my parents Christmas tree. (the little boy was named John Lawrence & the girl Margaret OConnor.)
At the top of the hill where the present Catholic Church stands were fields which were used to grow potatoes. father Lynch was the Parish priest then. When the potatoes were ready to reap the paritioners would spend a day working & put the potatoes in sacks, we were paid one shilling for a days work, I dont know if grownups got more.
During my time at Maryvale we had many religious days when we would carry the statue of Our Lady around the school walk
The girls would walk in front and throw rosepetals from a basket on the ground
before the statue.
There was always a procession in May and the schoolgirls danced around the Maypole. We children went to church 3 times on Sunday, 1. to mass in the morning, 2. to Sunday School in the afternoon when the student priest would come from the seminary at New Oscott & practice their sermons on us kids.
3. Benediction in the evening.
When we left to go to Australia the plans for the new church at the top of the hill were well advanced. From the top to the bottom of the hill on the opposite side of the road was vacant land. There was a rowe of houses facing Atlantic Road & they backed onto this vacant land.
On Kingstanding Road there was a very high fence and a bomb shelter, close to a fish & chip shop & on the other side was of that road was a pub not sure if it was called The Hare & Hounds.

 

[Vivienne14]

Welcome Aileen. Nice to read your memories. I lived in Atlantic Road from the 1950s and remember there were fields alongside Our Lady of the Assumption Church. I think it's where Cardinal Wiseman School was built. Were these fields the potato fields you mention? Used to play all around that area.

I too remember the air raid shelter near the Hare & Hounds on Kingstanding Road. According to Streetview there's no trace of it now. It must have been dangerous - and deep - I remember looking down into the entrance. It was on the reservation in the middle of Kingstanding Road. Viv.

 

[Astoness]

hi aileen and welcome from me too...considering you left maryvale in 1949 what a wonderful memory you have..many thanks for adding them to this thread

lyn

 

[Eric Gibson]

My late wife would have been there at the same time as you Aileen, she left in 1950, Jean Cox.

 

[Aileen Dalton]

Hi Eric, thanks for reply.
I will ask my older sister if she remembers Jean.

 

[Aileen Dalton]

Welcome Aileen. Nice to read your memories. I lived in Atlantic Road from the 1950s and remember there were fields alongside Our Lady of the Assumption Church. I think it's where Cardinal Wiseman School was built. Were these fields the potato fields you mention? Used to play all around that area.

I too remember the air raid shelter near the Hare & Hounds on Kingstanding Road. According to Streetview there's no trace of it now. It must have been dangerous - and deep - I remember looking down into the entrance. It was on the reservation in the middle of Kingstanding Road. Viv.

Hi Viv, The air raid shelter had steps down and was quite big we played down there after the war.
Where the college is now was the potato fields. Lots of open land then.
There was a fruit & veg shop on the corner opposite the high fence on Kingstanding Rd & next to that a general store run by Mr & Mrs Barlow who had a son named Raymond, we played together as kids.
During the war there were 2 camps one for prisoners of war I think they were Chekoslovakian men I remember they were behind wire and the other camp was American soldiers. My brother Tony & I used to sit on our fence and say “Got any gum chum” as the Americans walked by, they always had gum or chocolate to give us.
Maryvale school was hit too, the roof was damaged on the Oscott hill classroom, we had 3 weeks off school while it was fixed.
Lots of happy memories from that time.

 

[Vivienne14]

Interesting memories Aileen. I remember a nursery (the gardening plants sort) with an entrance on Kingstanding Road, near Old Oscott Hill. It's now Cardinal Wiseman fields. I think this nursery must have had something to do with those potato fields, perhaps the owner branched put into garden plants. We used to often visit it and wonder along the rows and rows of plants.

You may be interested in the Kingstanding thread (link below) It's a long thread but contains lots of information about the area. Viv.

Kingstanding

has anyone looked into the real change in peoples lives when kingstanding was developed. All my family came from aston and were rehoused in kingstanding just before ww2 did other families live in their back to backs ie gt brook st or were they demolished. i know my gran loved having the so...

birminghamhistory.co.uk

 

[Rowlandski]

I've dug out three photographs of Maryvale. The class photograph is pre WW1 I think. The 'official' photo looks painfully staged - one can almost hear the presiding nun telling the girls to keep still. Thank you, Aileen, for mentioning the Maypole dancing - that explains the goings-on in the third photograph!

 

[Dennis Williams]

Bit I posted elsehwere a few years ago now..

Maryvale steeped in history​

The site of Maryvale has been in Catholic occupation since the Middle Ages. Formerly 'Oscott House', it came to the Church in 1702 at the bequest of Father Andrew Bromwich who had inherited this property from his family. From 1794 to 1838 it was the home of Oscott College, the first Seminary to open in England after the reformation. During this time the historic Chapel of the Sacred Heart was inaugurated.

In 1846 after the removal of the college to the larger purpose-built premises three miles away, in what was then dubbed ‘New Oscott”, John Henry Newman and his community who had recently been received into the Church were granted the former seminary as a house of retreat and study.

It was Newman and his followers who gave it the name 'Maryvale' after St Philip Neri's church in Rome, and it is specified in the Papal Brief as the location of the first English Oratory of St Philip in 1848. The following year saw Maryvale become the Novitiate of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and it was visited by St Eugene of Mazenod. During much of this period the Chapel also functioned as a local parish church.

From 1851-1980 the Sisters of Mercy ran an orphanage and established a school for poor children. In 1980 it became a catechetical centre for the archdiocese of Birmingham and the present Catholic college for theology and catechesis developed out of the Adult Centre for Catechetics opened by Bishop Dwyer in 1980.

A convent for Bridgettine sisters was built in the grounds in 1999. The sisters’ special concerns are for hospitality and ecumenism, and the community have a regular pattern of worship in the Chapel.