Bit more on the history of St. Mary's at Old Ascott. Taken from the British History Online site: I could see Oscott College from my bedroom window when I was growing up.
T. MARY, Maryvale: Old Oscott Hill. In 1838, (
fn. 81) when Oscott College moved to New Oscott, the old college became its preparatory school for a few years. (
fn. 82) In 1846 Newman and his fellow converts settled there and Newman named it Maryvale. He returned there from Rome in 1847 as an Oratorian. (
fn. 83) The Oratory settled in Birmingham in 1849 (
fn. 84) and Maryvale seems to have been occupied by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate until
c. 1851. (
fn. 85) The mission was then intermittently served from New Oscott until after 1856, when it had its own priest. (
fn. 86) In 1851 the former college itself became an orphanage of the Sisters of Mercy. (
fn. 87) The new church, opened in 1937 and consecrated in 1953, (
fn. 88) is built on a sloping site and is of soft red brick sparingly dressed with stone. The tall rectangular west tower has louvred belfry openings. The west door, surmounted by a large stone figure of the Virgin, leads into a lateral passage, at one end of which is the gallery staircase and at the other a finely-moulded octagonal stone font, apparently belonging to an earlier church. The interior consists of a nave with narrow passage aisles, shallow transepts and a chancel terminating in a small ambulatory. All the openings in the church have semi-circular heads and are unmoulded.