THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K. 

CONVENT — History in Pictures 1934 - 1998

Text copyright Valerie Martin 1999

A stark image on the landscape in 1934. View from Nepcote Green of the newly built Convent of the Holy Rood from Nepcote Green. This was a home for invalids and incurables run by the Anglican Sisters of Mercy who came from Worthing. The delivery boy from the local shop is cycling up to the houses on the lane to Cissbury Ring.

When the new home of the Holy Rood opened in Findon, their old property on the corner of Chapel Road and Stoke Abbott Road in nearby Worthing went up for sale.   The site was gobbled up quickly and developed into a block of apartments,  shops, a car showroom and garage.

The main entrance.

 

The same view some months later.

 

c.1937 The meeting of the Brighton and Storrington Foot Beagles on Nepcote Green with the huntsman, whippers-in and beagle foot pack.   The newly built Convent (now demolished) is the backcloth. 

 

After a white façade had been added to the Convent of the Holy Rood. Pre 1936.

 

The main entrance after receiving the white façade.

 

Side view of the grounds to the Convent of the Holy Rood.

 

I GUESS THAT THESE PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE NEPCOTE CONVENT DATE FROM MAYBE THE 1930s...



24th January 2006

Valerie,

Findon Convent

I thought you may be interested in the attached three photos. One you already have but I believe my copy is better.



Until recently I was working in West Sussex and living in Worthing. A short contract of only 18 months, but in that time I fell in love with the area and I was very dissappointed to have to leave for my next assignment.

During that time a friends elderly mother enquired about the Findon Convent and enquiries led me to your site. I had visited Findon often and walked most of the paths around but never found the convent. Your site filled in the detail which I was able to pass on to my friends mother. Her mothers sister was a patient there until her death and if the nuns were still there, there was to be bequest. Although I found the sisters in Worthing their work has changed.

Sadly my friend's mother passed away at the end of last year, and these photos were passed to me. I hope they are of interest to you.

Regards

Tim Prior


 

The Chapel at the Convent.

 

 

c. 1955 — The convent.

The property changed hands in 1967 when the Convent of the Holy Rood moved. It was sold to the Convent of our Lady of Sion.

Pre 1971.

 

The Convent of Our Lady of Sion c. 1990. Cissbury Ring is in the background.

 

 

c. 1990

 

The Convent stands empty — as seen from Nepcote Green. The future is uncertain in 1996 for a building with an air of a decaying institution.

 

A security guard patrols the empty Convent, March 1996. Findon villagers held public meetings as they stepped up their campaign to prevent a housing estate being built on the Convent site.

 

Daffodils bloom in the Convent gardens for the last time. Villagers lost their fight to prevent twenty-seven homes being built on the site. The objectors claimed that the scheme would cause extra traffic congestion and that local roads, drainage and other services could not cope with the increased population.

 

Before the demolition team moved in. January 1998.

 

Demolition starts at the beginning of February 1998 to make way for the twenty-seven proposed homes.

 

 

By the end of February the bell tower has gone.

 

The Convent is slowly razed to the ground.

 

The smell of dust and decay pervaded the area.

 

May 2001 — The site of the old Convent now stands out starkly in the centre of the photograph with the roofs of the new estate built on the site.

 

 

Continue if you would like to read more about the convent in A Prayer Is Answered in Findon.

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This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.

E-mail: valeriemartin@findonvillage.com