St Mary's Catholic Academy

Last updated

St Mary's Catholic Academy
StMaryBlackpool.png
Address
St Mary's Catholic Academy
St Walburga's Road

, ,
FY3 7EQ

Coordinates 53°49′37″N3°01′16″W / 53.8269°N 3.0210°W / 53.8269; -3.0210 Coordinates: 53°49′37″N3°01′16″W / 53.8269°N 3.0210°W / 53.8269; -3.0210
Information
Type Academy
MottoSemper Fidelis
Religious affiliation(s) Roman Catholic
Established1856
1975 (merger)
Local authority Blackpool
Department for Education URN 141257 Tables
Ofsted Reports
HeadteacherSimon Eccles
GenderCoeducational
Age11to 18
Enrolment1,334
Website http://www.st-mary.blackpool.sch.uk

St Mary's Catholic Academy (formerly St Mary's Catholic College) is a school in Layton, Blackpool, Lancashire. The school was involved with the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme and, despite the scheme being cancelled, it was announced in August 2010 that for this school it would go ahead. [1]

Contents

With more than 1800 pupils, it is the largest Roman Catholic secondary school in Lancashire. The school is on the site of the former Convent of the Holy Child Jesus (usually known as Layton Hill Convent, Blackpool), on St. Walburga's Road near to Blackpool Victoria Hospital.

School history

The Society of the Holy Child Jesus (SHCJ) is a Catholic religious order for women which was founded in England in 1846. It follows the rules of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuit order for men). In 1856, Alexander Goss, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Liverpool (in which Diocese Blackpool then was) invited the sisters of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus to send out a branch from their house in Liverpool to teach in Father Bampton's Poor School on Talbot Road, Blackpool and they had arrived with 12 girl boarders. With accommodation in Queen's Square acquired for themselves and for the girls, the school flourished. It was run by a man.

After four years of such success, Bishop Goss agreed that the sisters could be rather more adventurous than their original mandate. So, in 1860, the original St Mary's was founded as a school for girls. This original school was located in a building called Raikes Hall in Raikes Parade, Blackpool. It is now a pub called the Raikes Hotel. Success was marked by rapid growth and in 1870 St Mary's moved to the site which the sisters already owned at Layton Hill where were located the original premises, much of which are still extant and form part of the modern school.

The school admitted boys by 1880 but in 1900 they were separated out and St Joseph's College, Blackpool was founded for them in Park Road where they were taught by lay teachers. There were several removals between Park Road and Whitegate Lane (now Whitegate Drive) and back until St Joseph's finally moved to Layton Mount on Newton Drive in 1918. Layton Mount had been built as a residence for Yorkshire mill owner William Lumb in 1895.

In 1923 Archbishop Frederick Keating (Liverpool had become an archdiocese in 1911) invited the Irish Christian Brothers in Liverpool to take over the running of St Joseph's and they did so. In November 1924, Blackpool was transferred into the new Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster. The brothers remained in charge at St Joseph's until their enforced departure in 1975 when a new Lancaster Diocesan rule required all Catholic schools to become co-educational. As the constitution of the order of the Christian Brothers forbade them to teach girls, they were unable to stay. In that year St Joseph's re-merged with Layton Hill Convent to form St Mary's Catholic College. Meanwhile, Layton Hill Convent had been flourishing as the principal Catholic girls' grammar school in the Fylde and it was its Head Teacher since 1966, Sister Maureen Grimley (SHCJ) (1932–2007), [2] who became the first Head Teacher of the re-combined school.

In 1977 the administration of the school was taken over by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster although Sister Maureen remained as Head Teacher until 1984 and sisters of the order still teach there. Initially the reunited school operated on two campuses, but the St Joseph's campus was shut down in the early 1980s and sold for housing development. Further expansion occurred in 1982 when the school was merged with two Catholic former secondary modern schools, St Thomas of Canterbury's and St Catherine's, which themselves had merged to form All Saints RC High School.

Notable former pupils

At Layton Hill:

At St Catherine's:

At St Joseph's:

At St Mary's:

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sisters of Mercy</span> Religious order

The Sisters of Mercy is a religious institute of Catholic women founded in 1831 in Dublin, Ireland, by Catherine McAuley. As of 2019, the institute had about 6200 sisters worldwide, organized into a number of independent congregations. They also started many education and health care facilities around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur</span> Catholic institute of religious sisters

The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur are a Catholic institute of religious sisters, founded to provide education to the poor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Society of the Holy Child Jesus</span> Catholic teaching order

The Society of the Holy Child Jesus is an international community of Roman Catholic sisters founded in England in 1846 by Philadelphia-born Cornelia Connelly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool</span> Catholic archdiocese in England

The Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church that covers the Isle of Man and part of North West England. The episcopal see is Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. The archdiocese is the centre of the Ecclesiastical Province of Liverpool which covers the north of England as well as the Isle of Man.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sisters of St. Joseph</span> Female Roman Catholic religious congregation

The Sisters of St. Joseph, also known as the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, abbreviated CSJ or SSJ, is a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women founded in Le Puy-en-Velay, France, in 1650. This congregation, named for Saint Joseph, has approximately 14,000 members worldwide: about 7,000 in the United States; 2,000 in France; and are active in 50 other countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Faithful Companions of Jesus</span> Roman Catholic female congregation

The Faithful Companions of Jesus Sisters is a Christian religious institute of the Roman Catholic Church directly subject to the Pope. It was founded in Amiens in France in 1820 by Marie Madeleine de Bonnault d'Houët.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diocese of Blackburn</span> Diocese of the Church of England

The Diocese of Blackburn is a Church of England diocese, covering much of Lancashire, created on 12 November 1926 from part of the Diocese of Manchester. The diocese includes the towns of Blackburn, Blackpool and Burnley, the cities of Lancaster and Preston, as well as a large part of the Ribble Valley. The cathedral is Blackburn Cathedral. The See is currently vacant following the retirement of Julian Henderson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bispham, Blackpool</span> Human settlement in England

Bispham is a village on the Fylde coast in Lancashire, England, a mile and a half north of Blackpool town centre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Mary's Convent Inter College, Prayagraj</span> School in India

St. Mary's Convent Inter College, Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, is a girls school run by the Sisters of the Congregation of Jesus in collaboration with a lay staff members. It was founded in 1866 by Mother Mary Ward for the education of girls. The Delhi and the Lucknow campuses are co-educational.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Columbus</span> Latin Catholic ecclesiastical jurisdiction in Ohio, USA

The Diocese of Columbus is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church covering 23 counties in the U.S. state of Ohio. The episcopal see of the diocese is situated at Columbus. The diocese was erected on March 3, 1868, by Pope Pius IX out of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. On October 21, 1944, the diocese lost territory when Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Steubenville. The Diocese of Columbus is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster</span> Catholic diocese in England

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster is a Latin Church Roman Catholic diocese centred on Lancaster Cathedral in the city of Lancaster in Lancashire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Layton, Blackpool</span>

Layton is a district and electoral ward of the town of Blackpool in England. The ward population at the 2011 census was 6,845.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holy Names High School (Oakland, California)</span> Private, all-female school in Oakland, , California, United States

Holy Names High School is a private Catholic girls college preparatory high school located in the Oakland Hills in Oakland, California. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland. The campus is also home to Aurora Elementary School and the former home to the convent for the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. Holy Names High School is sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary.

The Presentation Sisters, officially the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, are a religious institute of Roman Catholic women founded in Cork, Ireland, by the Venerable Honora "Nano" Nagle in 1775. The Sisters of the congregation use the postnominal initials P.B.V.M.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackpool Aspire Academy</span> High school in Blackpool, England

Blackpool Aspire Academy is a secondary school located in the Layton area of Blackpool, Lancashire, England.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claughton, Wyre</span> English village and parish also known as Claughton-on-Brock

Claughton is a sparse village and civil parish in the county of Lancashire in the north of England, in the Borough of Wyre. The population of the civil parish at the 2011 census was 633. It is sometimes called Claughton-on-Brock to distinguish it from another Claughton in Lancashire in the Lune valley between Lancaster and Hornby.

The Benedictine Sisters of St. Walburg Monastery is a Roman Catholic congregation of women. whose motherhouse, St. Walburg Monastery, is located at Villa Madonna, in Villa Hills, Kentucky. It was founded in 1859 by three sisters of the Benedictine congregation of Mount St. Benedict Monastery in Erie, Pennsylvania, who came to Covington to teach the German-speaking children of St. Joseph's parish. They became an independent congregation in 1867. Villa Madonna Academy, a private, Roman Catholic K-12 school is an integral part of the sisters' ministry in Kentucky. Besides operating the Academy, the sisters taught in parish schools and staffed St. John's Orphanage.

Marton is a settlement on the coastal plain of the Fylde in Lancashire, England, most of which is now part of the seaside town of Blackpool. Marton, which consisted of Great Marton, Little Marton, Marton Fold and The Peel, was originally part of the parish of Poulton-le-Fylde, before the development of Blackpool as a resort.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St Mary's Church, Fleetwood</span> Church in Lancashire, England

St Mary's is a Roman Catholic church in Fleetwood, Lancashire, England. Designed by E. W. Pugin, it was built in 1866–67. It is an active church in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster. It has been designated a Grade II listed building by English Heritage.

References

  1. "Blackpool Council - Building Schools for the Future" . Retrieved 1 January 2012.
  2. "Nun who reformed her college". Blackpool Gazette. 4 May 2007.
  3. "Larry Cassidy obituary". TheGuardian.com . 11 April 2010.