General Chat

Hi, I am looking for any information about the Sister of Mercy convent in Midhurst, particulalry how long it ran and in house laundry and perhaps stories from those who were inmates there in the early 1900s. Not very much forthcoming on the internet. Cheers

What info do you have on these laundrys as my nan was in Birmingham City Mission Laundry home about 1910/'1911 & then in 1912 she was in Surrey Rescue Laundry Home. Were they mainly for unmarried mothers?

Also my mother said my nan said she was in service at some point in Sussex and im thinking was she in Service or in another laundry home!

this seems familiar Valerie - do you have a posting on one of the research boards? Trying to Find maybe?

It's on the 1901 census.For a point of reference the Reverend Mother is called Catherine Brandon.

It is in the Petersfield Road and must be where the convent school is now.

I am surprised I had never heard of this as my friend's mother was the most morbid woman you could hope to meet,loved a bit of human suffering and she lived her whole life around Midhurst.How extraordinary that she never thought to mention it!

Well,I can't sleep!

It was not there on the 1891 census.

Valerie write to Midhurst Library it's in
Knockhundred Row,
Midhurst,
West Sussex.
GU29 9DO

Good luck
Pat
They have a web site by the way (very basic)

Hi All, I am sorry to have taken so long to get back to this!!!! My grand mother Edith Caffrey died before I was born but my grandfather told me many stories of her upbringing and later life. I was told that she had dementia from her mid fortite (about 1935) which was not long after my father was born. I know that she was placed in Nazareth House in Nottingham as a 6 year old because of the death of her father and that her mother could not cope financially. I was shocked to find her in the 1911 census living as an inmate (age 17) at the convent of mercy in Midhurst as a laundry worker. I recall being told that she had a horrid childhood and was made to do lots of laundry but I thought this was when her family took her home from Nazareth house as a 11 year old... it seems not which saddens me greatly. I am now wandering if she perhaps suffered from a mental illness from a child. I now want to find out about her life between the ages of 11 in 1906 and 17 in 1911, and how she moved from Nottingham to Midhurst.

Pat - thnak you for the address of the library, I wil contact them!

Sharron - I hope you slept!! I will update this as I find out more.

Ann - Yes I posted soemthing a few nights earlier on th trying to find but thought it mayhave been the worng board. I did find that it was the Convent of Mercy and not the convent of Mary though:-)