St Maur's School

St Maur's

St Maur’s was founded in 1898 by the Catholic order the Sister’s of the Infant Jesus and was until recently situated in Thames Street in Weybridge, Surrey. St Maur’s was a day and boarding school that offered a Christian education to girls who came from all over the world as well as locally. The School catered for girls aged between 2 and 18. Until 1993 St Maur’s had shared a joint co-educational Sixth Form with nearby St George’s College for over 30 years. Several generations of brothers and sisters had attended both schools.

St Maur's Orchestra

Rosslyn House

Rosslyn Girls ready for a day at Ascot

Life at Rosslyn by Sarah Bell

In 1947 my mother, sister and I paid a visit to Weybridge to see my uncle, Father H. J Ryan. He in turn introduced us to the head of St. Maur’s Convent, Reverend Mother St. Patrick, who at that time had just acquired Rosslyn House, situated in Oatlands Drive in Weybridge. She had big plans for it as a finishing school, a type of educational establishment which still flourished for a while after WW2.

Reverend Mother St. Patrick showed us round with tremendous enthusiasm. She had already purchased some of the furniture and was particularly proud of a very large mahogany tall boy which was situated on the main landing which she had bought for a song. She was always a very astute business woman!

On future visits we saw Rosslyn developing on both finishing school and furnishing fronts. One of the most memorable items was the carpeting, which had been presented by Maxine Milder’s father, and was the carpeting used in all Odeon cinemas at the time. It was rather fun to see cinema carpet in the chapel, which at that time was inside the main house.

I finally went as a student in 1951, when there were 32 girls from all over the world. There were not many English girls, but they were necessary, of course, so that the students from abroad had people to practice their English. French was the most common language at the beginning of the year though English eventually took over by the end of the year as the students made progress.

There was Mass every day, said by one of the priests from St. George’s College, and Benediction twice a week. As well as the chapel there was a charming little grotto in the grounds dedicated to Our Lady of Lourdes, where Father Hugh put his tobacco seedlings at night while they were being hardened off outdoors in the Spring. The grotto eventually became the new purpose-built Chapel.

The courses offered were very extensive, from the Cambridge Proficiency in English, to assorted O and A Levels in assorted European languages, which recently had taken over from the old Matriculation exams. There was shorthand, typing, book-keeping on offer; economics, art, choral singing, and instrumental music. There were classes in ballroom dancing, bridge, and visiting lecturers taught us other things, like flower arranging. There were opportunities for swimming, visiting theatres and concert halls, Wimbledon and Ascot. There was tennis coaching, there were golf lessons and there were art lessons - in oils.

We were responsible for cleaning our own rooms, and much of the house we used like the dining room where we learned to look after antique mahogany tables with water, a dash of ammonia and gigantic amounts of elbow grease. We had television and hired radios - great big ones with valves - for our bedrooms. We did our own cooking for lunch and dinner - in a large beautifully fitted kitchen, in groups of eight or so girls, which was a pleasure as we were encouraged to chatter as we would at home, though many of the girls would never have been inside a kitchen in their lives! I still cook some of the dishes I learnt then. After the cooking we changed for dinner every evening!

We did our own personal washing and ironing - with the right machines available. We had a certain amount of freedom to go shopping locally and spend time in London - which I don’t imagine would be done these days! Most of us had never worked so hard in our lives.

Some of the girls were just 16 and they tended to be encouraged to take some A Levels as well as the useful secretarial subjects but several of the overseas girls had been sent by their parents to be away from what the parents considerable ‘unsuitable young men’, and there were many misty eyed young ladies listening to such pop songs as ‘They try to tell us we’re too young, Too young to really be in love. . .’

King George VI died in the Easter Term of 1952, and we all went up to London to see the Lying in State, queuing for about four hours in the wet snow which failed to settle. This is one of the most impressive occasions which I have experienced, and the whole scene is vivid and sharp in my memory.

The Coronation took place in my second year - most students stayed only one year. Most of the overseas girls had tickets to see the whole thing in London, but the majority of the English girls stayed in Rosslyn House and were spoilt rotten by the nuns. Madame St. Marie Edith (as they used to be addressed!) woke us up with breakfast in bed with the announcement that Mount Everest had been climbed - a very thrilling start to the day! We spent most of the day watching television but were not allowed into the dining room. When we were finally allowed in, the table was covered with the sort of food the starved English, still on some rations, hadn’t seen for years and beautifully decorated. I particularly remember the asparagus and the smoked salmon: it was the first time I had tasted either.

We all visited from time to time after we left, and the Old Girls’ Day was well worth a visit as we arrived over the years, first flashing engagement rings, then wedding rings and eventually howling children. The food and cakes on those occasions still linger mouth-wateringly in my mind.

It was a magical period which was doomed but it is lovely to remember and in many ways I’m glad it is not longer there. We didn’t have to see it die with a sigh. It came to an end very suddenly with the tragic and unexpected death of Jenny who took over the running of Rosslyn House after the illness and death of Reverend Mother St. Patrick.

Vatican II realigned emphasis on looking after the poor, so educating the children of the rich and privileged got a low priority, though Reverend Mother St. Patrick strongly felt that those who were likely to marry the leaders and others of influence in their own countries - which many of the overseas students did - needed a good Christian education that in the long run would benefit those who lived in their countries. That was indeed one of the reasons she set up Rosslyn House in the first place.

Article kindly supplied by Sarah Bell (née Ryan), former Rosslyn House pupil.

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