It was York Residents’ weekend the other weekend and we managed to squeeze in a visit to the York Dungeons and the Bar Convent. York attractions are free to residents that weekend, but things are only open at specific times so it’s a case of juggling your visiting priorities around. You weren’t allowed to take photos in the Dungeon, so I won’t be blogging about that experience. But I was allowed to within Bar Convent.
Bar Convent is actually only about 10 minutes from my house and I walk past it multiple times a week. From the outside it just looks like a fairly traditional 18th Century house so I hadn’t actually even considered what’s inside. So when I read that it would be opened to visitors for free, I knew I had to take advantage and learn a bit more about my neighbourhood.
And I was in for an absolute shock!
The Bar Convent is England’s oldest living convent, and is still currently home to members of its religious order. It was founded in 1686 as a school for girls.
Inside today, there is a museum exhibition, an absolutely stunning cafe, and some quite fancy guest house accommodation. I went through the exhibition, though I’d love to go back and have a coffee in the cafe greenhouse in the summertime.
At the time that Bar Convent was established, the English Civil War was still a very recent memory and strife between Protestants and Catholics couldn’t be underestimated. A group of Catholic women purchased the land and built Bar Convent under aliases to secretly run a Catholic school for girls. These ingenious women even managed to hide an entire chapel inside the building’s roof. No tour of a secret Catholic meeting place in England would be complete without getting to see one of the infamous ‘priest holes’ (used for hiding priests from pursuers accusing them of treason and papacy.)
It’s interesting to read about how the Sisters’ work changed, especially once they were able to come out of hiding, but still how intrinsically they are linked to the shape of York history. Bar Convent was almost lost to everyone when it was bombed by the Luftwaffe during WWII.
All in all, it’s a fairly fascinating visit. Especially to learn about the radical Yorkshire nun, Mary Ward. (She traveled across the Alps by herself, on foot. Twice. In the 1600s. To lobby the Pope.) She didn’t think nuns should be sequestered away and that they should be active in their community. She didn’t think that choir should be mandatory, nor should they have to wear the habit. And she believed in the education of women.
Another local bit of history tied to the house: Margaret Clitherow is an English saint in the Catholic Church. She was a wealthy woman who risked her life by harbouring priests and Catholics in her house after the Act of 1584 (which made it a capital offence). When she was caught, she was pressed to death – using her own front door from her house in the Shambles as a base to load the rocks on top of her. Rumour has it that a relic, said to be her preserved hand is housed inside Bar Convent. But I didn’t see it.
Maybe you have to request to see it. Someone please do that for me and report back.
Bar Convent is located at 17 Blossom St, York YO24 1AQ
Ticket prices are £5
Have you visited the Bar Convent Living Heritage Centre before?
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