Speen - Catholic School

[heywood]

Having looked it up in 1861 - London Road seems to be the address but still no name.

St Joseph's Newbury seems to be (I keep saying seems as I have no knowledge of the area but enjoy digging and delving and trying to be of help  ) the Catholic Church which came from the Chapel.
http://www.westberks.org/GroupRenderCustomPage.asp?GroupID=2537&ResourceId=126266
indicates that the first school was built c 1855 by Father Hodgson who is actually named in the 1861 census - a nice bit of history.
good luck
heywood

[BYNG]

there is a catholic junior school [St Mary"s] in NEWPORT CLOSE ,off of London rd,opposite Faraday rd, at the junction of Newport rd and IDEN CLOSE,this area used to be known as "speen" but is now SHAW.

[Evelina]

Thanks everyone this has been a great help, I am in Scotland myself so cannot go to the area and ask questions.  All the info you have supplied adds to the picture.  Thanks again. Evelina

[newburychap]

there is a catholic junior school [St Mary"s] in NEWPORT CLOSE ,off of London rd,opposite Faraday rd, at the junction of Newport rd and IDEN CLOSE,this area used to be known as "speen" but is now SHAW.

This area is actually part of Newbury but used to be Woodspeen East, part of the parish of Speen absorbed by Newbury in 1878.  Locals think of it as Shaw (parish of Shaw cum Donnington) - the boundaries of which are confusing - the civil parish contains very little of what would be considered Shaw though the ecclesiastical parish has grown in 'recent' years to take in much of the relatively short lived parish of St Mary's, Speenhamland (1830 to c1965).

Any 1850s Catholic school would be associated with St Joseph's and hence with the abbey in Woolhampton who founded St Joseph's.  But 1851 seems a little early.

[PaulGT]

There is an article on the St. Joseph's Church web site about the church's golden Jubilee in 1978.
The piece contains a snippet about the creation of the school at 105 London Road, which is now the presbetery for the Church.
Article: http://www.stjosephsnewbury.org.uk/ (scroll down the page to find the link to the article.)
Map: http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&cp=sk0y53gwq3z8&scene=17151271&lvl=2&sty=b
105 London Road is second from the Central left attached to the chruch hall.

Hope that Helps
PaulGT