RootsChat.Com
England (Counties as in 1851-1901) => England => Lancashire => Topic started by: RosieThomas on Friday 14 August 20 15:17 BST (UK)
-
Seeking information on a convent. I have a 60 year old woman whose home was in Dover but who died in the Ursuline Convent, Burbo Bank Road, Gt Crosby on New Year's Eve 1967. She had been gassed in France during WW1 and left with an ongoing bronchial condition. Cannot find any info on the convent, other than mentions of it being a school. Did it perhaps provide nursing home facilities? The lady was not Catholic. Haven't a clue why she was there.
-
The school and convent were different buildings, see the
1956 1966 map at https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/330642/399326/13/100765
You don't have to subscribe just zoom out to see the map.
Stan
-
Ah ... thanks for that useful info Stan.
-
The school and convent were different buildings, see the 1956 1966 map at https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/330642/399326/13/100765
You don't have to subscribe just zoom out to see the map.
Stan
The 1956 map is at https://www.old-maps.co.uk/#/Map/330642/399326/13/101329
Stan
-
The first map was fine thanks .. really helpful.
-
Died age 60 in 1967
so she was b 1907 - and gassed in France WW1 - 1914-1918 ...so she was only a child aged 7 - 11 when she was gassed ...what was an English child doing in France during those horrible times ....poor mite
or
Was she born in France ???
-
Thanks for spotting glaring typo. Should have read 70 years old at death.
The lady in question (Edith Hazell Atkinson) was a Red Cross Volunteer during WW1, riding motorbikes in the battlefields. Hence being gassed.
-
http://www.ursulines.co.uk/contact.htm
perhaps an email to one of the addresses on that page may result in some info?
Boo
-
Thanks Boo. I have contacted them .. been referred to a different branch & waiting to hear back.
-
Have you seen the transcribed VAD records for this lady on FindMyPast? She's described variously as a driver/chauffeur/chauffeuse.
-
Thanks Sean .. yes I have the record. Description in family letter says: “Throughout the war she drove an ambulance right up to the trenches in all weathers and during the worst of the fighting, was gassed and contracted a bronchial condition from which she was never thereafter free."
She spent time in a nursing home in Sussex. That’s why I wondered if the convent might have had some sort of nursing function.
-
I grew up in that area and I remember Ursuline only as a school. My 1966 Kelly's Liverpool directory has a list of nursing homes (including Park House in Crosby which was run by Augustinian nuns) but Ursuline is not listed there. In the street directory only the school is mentioned.
-
Oddly very little mention of it anywhere.
-
From the Liverpool Echo 27 August 1981
Arson at Former Convent
Detectives are to-day hunting fire raisers who broke into a large former convent in Blundellsands, and started a blaze in the ground floor room once used as a chapel.
The large three-storey former Ursuline Convent in Burbo Bank Road which is up for sale, was broken into last night and a passing police patrol spotted the fire.
On the 1937 map it is a house called Seathwaite. In 1942 it was occupied by John B. Crispin, a director of Tate & Lyle who died there on the 19 February.
The Liverpool Daily Post 20 June 1942 has an article saying that Seathwaite had been sold to the Ursuline Sisters who it was expected would use the house as an extension to their school.
Stan
-
The 1967 phone book has the address of the convent as "Overdale, Seathwaite, Burbo Bank Road".
-
Overdale was the house next to Seathwaite, and was the Ursuline Preparatory School
Stan
-
Thanks Sean and Stan. All helpful info. Did newspaper & census searches earlier but no info that takes me further forward.
-
Have you asked the Ursuline Order about the Ursine Convent, Burbo Bank Road, Gt Crosby? There may be some surviving records that might help explain how this lady became resident there. In view of her WWI VAD service there may have been an obituary written about her.
The Ursuline order has web-site -
http://www.ursulines.co.uk/index.htm
and this gives contact details -
Ursulines Roman Union
38 Grosvenor Road
Forest Gate
London
E7 8JA
United Kingdom
020 8471 6644
unamabel@aol.com
If you write, you should address your message to “The Archivist” and explain your interest in this lady.
-
Thanks .. yes I have contacted them. Awaiting a reply.