The Convent of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin at Micklegate Bar, York, better known as Bar Convent, is the oldest surviving Roman Catholic convent in England, established in 1686. The laws of England at this time prohibited the foundation of Catholic convents and as a result of this, the convent was both established and operated in secret. Frances Bedingfeld, a member of the Sisters of Loreto (also known as the IBVM), signed the deeds for the land the convent was to be built on on 5 November 1686 under the alias Frances Long.
The creation of the Convent was inspired at least in part by Sir Thomas Gascoigne, a fervent Catholic who declared "we must have a school for our daughters". Gascoigne even went as far as providing a gift of £450, part of which purchased a property on the Convent site and a boarding school, and day school, for Catholic girls was set up at the site by the nuns.
The order was a target for frequent discrimination, leading in 1694 to the incarceration of Mother Frances and her great niece in Ousebridge Gaol. They were released shortly after but two years later, in 1696, the house was attacked and severely damaged by an angry mob. The engraving of St Michael over the front door is to commemorate this, with a local legend stating that St Michael appeared over the house riding a horse and the mob, terrified, fled the scene.
The convent later came under attack from Doctor Jaques Sterne, a religious campaigner who ordered the convent be shut down and the children at the school sent home. The situation culminated in Mother Hodshon and a colleague being summoned before the Spiritual Court to answer charges of not receiving holy communion at Holy Trinity Church. The case fell apart, largely due to no service being carried out that day and was thrown out. Doctor Sterne would go on to become a staunch ally and supporter of the Convent following this incident.
Mother Bedingfeld was recalled to Germany in 1699 and the original intention was that Mary Portington would succeed her. However, a family lawsuit made it politically difficult for Portington to take the post and the role fell instead to Dorothy Bedingfield (née Baston), whose reign coincided with a period of intense poverty and this, combined with her own unpopularity, meant that her 34-year reign was turbulent.
Under Mother Ann Aspinal, the convent was expanded and rebuilt, culminating in the original property being effectively demolished and rebuilt with the order moving to a neighbouring house for two years. The foundation stone for the new house was laid on 4 March 1766 and the house was covered by December 1768. Mother Aspinal also presided over the construction of what is described in the building licence as, "A new front wall to her house". What Mother Aspinal built was an entire extra level to the house, a Georgian Facade that added an extra set of rooms to the front of the house. A copy of the licence, granted by Lord Peter Johnson, then Mayor, can be viewed in the Convent's archives.
The most significant addition to the new Convent was a Chapel. Mother Aspinal initially wanted the design to reflect Roman churches and hired Thomas Atkinson, the architect responsible for the Neo Gothic additions to Bishopthorpe Palace to do the work. However, due to the continuing hostility to Catholicism, Atkinson took the decision to modify the initial design, incorporating it into the structure of the house itself.
Instead of the dome Mother Aspinal intended, the dome was concealed beneath a slate roof, meaning it was hidden from the street. Atkinson also built eight different escape routes into the Chapel, to ensure that if the building was stormed, the worshippers would be able to escape. The Chapel was completed in 1769.
The passing of the First Catholic Repeal Act in 1778 made life easier for the Convent as it allowed them to legally practice their religion and legalised Catholic schools. This led to a new climate of religious freedom within Britain that allowed the nuns to wear the religious habit for the first time since the creation of the Convent. The passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 in turn led to the Bar Convent being granted a licence to act as a public place of worship for the first time in its history.
During the Napoleonic Wars the Convent found itself providing shelter to émigré priests from the continent. Mother Superior Catherine Rouby, the Superior at the time, also provided shelter to fugitive nuns including Carmelites from Brabant, Canonesses of the Holy Sepulchre from Liège and Poor Clares from Dunkirk.
Émigré families also sent their daughters to the school and several stayed on to become nuns in the community. The conflict and its aftermath led to the Convent being cut off from the Institute of the Blessed Virgin in Germany. As a result, Mother Superior Elizabeth Coyney petitioned the Pope to have the Convent put under the authority of the Northern Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Gibson.
Mother Mary Aikenhead, foundress of the Sisters of Charity was a novice there for three years (1812–1815). The order continued to maintain a school on the site until 1985, when control was handed over to the Middlesbrough diocese and renamed as All Saints School.
The convent was bombed during World War II, leading to the death of five nuns and the destruction of the East Wing.
The main building of the Convent is three storeys tall, with an attic, facing directly onto Blossom Street. The front façade has seven bays, the central three of which stand slightly forward from the others. There are 12-pane sash windows on the ground floor. The one which is directly above the doorcase is set in a shouldered surround with a balustrade below the window and a moulded cornice above it.
At the rear of the building, there is a 3-storey 3-bay pent-roofed extension which houses a square clock tower. The tower itself is crowned with an ogee roofed open cupola and timber columns. The schoolroom block of the main building is 2 storeys tall and has a 3 bay front. The windows are once again 12 pane sashes with differences in size and moulding between the first and second floors. All the windows have flat arches of rubbed brick.
Today, the convent is a Grade I listed building and houses a museum dealing with the history of the Convent, as well as a cafe and guest accommodation.
Convent and school of The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary; now convent and museum. Entrance range of 1786-9, fronting earlier buildings of which the Chapel block of 1766-9 remains relatively unaltered; 1790-3 outer range on north side of Court added; 1834-5 inner range on north side of Court and range north of the Chapel block added; 1844-6 Chapel block altered and Schoolroom block on corner of Nunnery Lane added. The Court was roofed c1865 and other alterations made later in C19. Parts of the building were damaged during the Second World War and some alterations were made during conversion for museum use c1985. C18 buildings by Thomas Atkinson; work of the 1830s by JB and W Atkinson, of 1840s and later by GT Andrews.
MATERIALS: entrance range of red-brown brick in Flemish bond with window arches of orange brick; plinth, dressings and cornice of painted stone. 1834 range of buff brick in Flemish bond with timber bracketed eaves guttering. Schoolroom block of orange-brown brick, Blossom Street front in Flemish bond, Nunnery Lane front in English garden-wall bond; window arches are of orange brick; plinth and giant order with entablature on Blossom Street front of ashlar. All roofs are hipped and slated and have brick stacks except for lead roof to clock tower and glass roof to Court. Stone gable cross.
EXTERIOR: entrance range: 3 storeys and attic; 7-bay front; 3 centre bays are pedimented and break forward slightly. Ground and first floors in centre are treated as centrepiece and set in 2-storey round-arched recess: moulded stone steps lead up to 6-panel door in rusticated surround, with plain fanlight behind decorative iron grille. Detached doorcase is of paired fluted Doric columns supporting mutule cornice and pediment. Window above is 12-pane sash in shouldered surround with balustrade below window and moulded cornice above. All other windows on ground, first and second floors are 12-pane sashes, those on second floor squatter. On ground and first floors they have sill band, on second floor painted stone sills: all have flat arches of rubbed brick. Broad raised bands to first floor and attic. Moulded cornice and pediment are modillioned and pediment has clock face in tympanum. Plain attic has 6 squat 3-pane windows. Railings braced to ground floor and forming gates across porch are of square section with tapered finials.
Rear: 3-storey 3-bay pent-roofed extension. Square clock tower in centre rises above roof and is crowned with ogee-roofed open cupola of timber columns. Schoolroom block: 2-storey 3-bay front articulated by attached giant order pilasters, raised on high podium, carrying pedimented entablature. Windows are 12-pane sashes on both floors, squatter on first floor. On ground floor, moulded sill band forms coping to podium: on first floor, sills extend full width of each bay. All windows have flat arches of rubbed brick. Left return: 3 storeys with scattered fenestration. Chamfered stone plinth and entablature are returned from Blossom Street front. Curved corner bay has inserted round-arched doorway with moulded imposts beneath keyed hoodmould and curved door of 6 moulded panels. Further left, two 4-panel door approached by steps break plinth. Windows are sashes, two of 12 panes, one of 16 panes, one 4 panes, all with stone sills; all except 4-pane window have segmental brick arches.
Chapel block from garden: 2 storeys and attics; 5-bay front, right end masked by extensions housing the Lady Chapel and a staircase. Ground floor has two square-headed windows each of 4 round-headed 'Gothick' lights; first floor has three inserted lunette windows with central pivoting lights. 4-course raised brick first floor band. Lady Chapel extension has one round-arched small-pane light. Attic windows are two box dormers and one flat skylight.