Garden Party at Paddock House

iBase ID

231134

Reference identifier

HAC08052010041

Title

Garden Party at Paddock House

Place

Oswaldtwistle

General notes

User Comments: 'Paddock House Convent was run by the Sisters of Mercy. It had a big Grammar School for Roman Catholic Girls and later a Junior Department. Quite a lot of girls travelled there by train from Colne, Nelson & Burnley, as the main entrance to the School was on Frederick Street, just up Union Road from Church and Oswaldtwistle Railway Station.

Paddock House had an extremely good reputation as a School, as did (for non-Catholics who passed the Eleven Plus), Accrington Grammar School for Boys and Accrington High School for Girls (my old school).

When Comprehensive Education was introduced in Hyndburn in 1975 the School merged with Holy Family Secondary Modern School (located at Wordsworth Road, Accrington) to become Mount Carmel R.C. High School. The Accrington site was expanded to take in all the pupils of secondary age. The Roman Catholic School currently (2024) has a very good reputation and also attracts Secondary School Students from other Faith backgrounds, both Christian Protestant and Muslim.

Two parts of the former Paddock House site have houses built on them (The Paddock and Mayfield Gardens) and there is a small woodland in the care of the Woodland Trust. Otherwise the site seems rather abandoned.

St. Mary's R.C. Church, to which Paddock House was linked, is still an active Church and is located close by at the junction of Catlow Hall Street and Hawthorn Avenue. The Priest shown on the photo would have been the Priest of that Church (Fr. Watterston?)

St. Mary's R.C. Primary School has been located for some decades at Mayfield Avenue (opposite the former Convent site), having relocated from an older, smaller building on Moscow Mill Street.' 02/04/2024.

Medium

Photographic print

Colour

Monochrome

Original image size

21.5 x 16.3

Year of image

c1927

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Locator

Accrington: H02/S4 accession 3904

Mario Map link