Page includes St Bridget's Abbey of Syon, Redemptoristine Nuns and The Roman Catholic Convent at Oaklands.
St Bridget's Abbey of Syon
This community was first established by Henry V in 1415 at Isleworth, Middlesex. At the dissolution in 1539 the monastery was suppressed and took refuge in Flanders but after an absence of 300 years returned to England in 1859 and settled at Spettisbury, Dorset where they remained until removing to Chudleigh.
In 1887 their convent and chapel were built at Chudleigh on three acres of land given by the owner of Filleigh and designed as a closed community for more than forty people. The secular chapel was formally opened on Sunday 9 December 1887 and was available to local Roman Catholics. The priest who lived in an adjacent house was never allowed to enter the convent. A small burial ground was located a short distance to the west of the main building.
The 1891 census shows that there were sixteen resident nuns including the 65 year old abbess, Clara Heyes, originally of Burton-on-Trent. The resident priest was John Dickenson, aged 50, born at Monkton Combe, Somerset.
The resident chaplains of St Saviour-
1889 Rev Norbert Woolfrey
1891 Rev John Dickenson
1902 Rev J Lawrence Lowergan OSB
1910 Rev Patrick Barrett
1914 Rev Isaac Cowd
1919 Very Rev Canon Morford
1923 Very Rev Dunstan Sibley OSB (he continued with the Redemptoristine Nuns)
The abbesses-
1891 - 1893 Miss Clara Heyes
1902 - 1919 Miss Agnes Teresa Jocelyn
In the 1923 directory she was styled as Dame Agnes Teresa Jocelyn Lady Abbess.
The entrance to the Syon Abbey chapel in about 1920
In 1925 the premises were sold and the nuns moved to Rattery where they acquired the neo-classical Marley House. It was renamed Syon Abbey and remains so called today. That house was originally owned by the Palk family and had passed to the Carew family of Haccombe in 1806.
Redemptoristine Nuns
The Chudleigh buildings were then acquired by Redemptoristine nuns for their convent who had moved from Clapham, London where they had been since 1897. It was reported that the move from London was due to the fact that Clapham was no longer the rural location it was when they moved there. The nuns were of a 250 year old order that had its origins in Italy. A closed contemplative order there were 28 nuns at the outset, in 1926 the abbess was E. Foulon. Their number had depleted to ten by 1989, all of whom were over sixty years of age. It was decided that the premises were too large and so it was put up for sale along with 13 acres of adjoining fields, the asking price was £500,000 for the freehold. On sale the nuns moved to a Catholic campus near Liverpool.
One lady who missed her sister so much when she joined the convent built a house opposite called Abbeylands so she could be near. The Kelly's town directories list a Miss Tozer at that house in the period 1930-39.
The property was duly purchased by a couple who converted one unit for their own use and the remainder was split into five large houses, each with a garden and at least one and a half acres of pasture.
The original area that served as the burial ground now forms part of the general grounds but is separated by hedging. There are no individual gravestones but a single tablet exists with the following inscription-
In loving memory of all those buried here
Brigittine Nuns 1886 - 1925
Redemptoristine Nuns 1925 - 1990
May they Rest in Peace
The resident chaplains of Most Holy Redeemer & St Alphonsus-
1925 Very Rev Dunstan Sibley OSB
1930 Very Rev Canon Francis Shepherd,
1935 Rev Alfred Gordon B Herring DD
1939 Rev Emmanuel McGinley BA
The Roman Catholic Convent at Oaklands
Mary Jones (1852) - 'Oaklands, the residence of Thomas Lane Esq was built by Major Milles on some coarse clay land called Filleigh Farm. The reader who a few years since might have known this sterile tract of land, the worst in the parish with the exception of Haldon would now scarcely recognise it. This great change has been effected by a judicious and experimental system of farming under direct superintendence of the occupier, who has literally converted this once barren waste into fruitful fields, bearing average crops.'
From 1873 the house was in the occupation of Major General Charles James Buchanan Riddell CB RA and his wife Elizabeth. She died at the house in 1900 and he in 1903.
By 1910 and for about the next twelve years St Joseph's Ursuline Roman Catholic Convent was occupying the house. The Ursulines are a religious order founded at Brescia, Italy, by Saint Angela de Merici in November 1535, primarily for the education of girls and the care of the sick and needy. Their patron saint is Saint Ursula.
The contemporary town directories give the following as head of the convent-
1910 - Rev Mother Hyacinthe Lamy
1914 - Rev Father Andre Rolland
1919 - Rev Mother Marie Raphael
Today the Ursulines run many schools and colleges, particularly in North America. Also in this country, mostly in the London area and a number are located in Eire. The majority remain all-female although some sixth-form colleges admit males.
At the top left part of the Roman Catholic area of Chudleigh Cemetery is a kerbed section with a plaque that was removed from Oaklands Convent when it closed in 1922. The inscription reads-
"Pray for the repose of Revd A. Rolland and Ursulines 1906 - 1922"
On 29 November 1922 the remains of twenty individuals were removed from the convent burial ground and re-interred at the cemetery.
A sale catalogue is held at the Devon Record Office for the house dated 1923. A sale advertisement (Chudleigh clippings file at Chudleigh Library) states the auction was to take place at the Globe Hotel, Newton Abbot on 10th January 1923. The house had, until recently and for many years past, been used as an Ursuline Convent and is eminently suitable for a school or similar institution, occupying a sheltered and healthy position.
By 1926 the house was occupied by Mr Herman Joseph Cramer who had previously been at Kerswell. He renamed the house Westwoods and stayed for about five years. By 1935 the next occupier was Mr Hugh Pearce-Gould who was still in residence four years later.