Survey Data
Reg No
11814112
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social
Original Use
Laundry
In Use As
Convent/nunnery
Date
1820 - 1860
Coordinates
289286, 219731
Date Recorded
20/05/2002
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached five-bay two-storey former laundry girls’ home, c.1840, on an L-shaped plan with two-bay two-storey gabled advanced end bay to right (north-west) and three-bay two-storey return to rear to south-west having five-bay single-storey double-pile wing to south-west. Mostly refenestrated, c.1990. Now in use as convent. Hipped and gable-ended roofs with slate (gabled to advanced end bay; double-pile (M-profile) to wing to south-west). Red clay ridge tiles. Roughcast chimney stacks. Cast-iron rainwater goods on eaves course. Roughcast walls. Painted. Cut-stone dressings to front (north-east) elevation including quoins to corners and coping to gable dot advanced end bay. Square-headed window openings (paired to front (north-east) elevation. Stone sills. Cut-stone block-and-start surrounds to front (north-east) elevation with cut-stone lintels. Replacement uPVC casement windows, c.1990, with some original 1/1 timber sash windows to return. Timber doorcase. Timber panelled door. Sidelights and overlights. Set back from road in grounds shared with Catholic church and convent to south-east. Hedge boundary to forecourt.
Appraisal
Saint Helen’s Home is a building of considerable social and historical importance, having formerly operated as a girls’ laundry, established by the Sisters of Mercy. The building is a fine and extensive structure of balanced proportions, with a finely detailed front (north-east) elevation incorporating cut-stone dressings, and reserved elevations to the remainder. Renovated in the late twentieth century, much of the original form has been retained, yet with the loss of much of the original fenestration – some early windows remain to the return and timber fenestration might be re-instated to the remainder at a future date, using these earlier examples as a model, to restore a more accurate representation of the original appearance. The school is an attractive and integral component of a self-contained group of Catholic buildings located to north of the town.