Battenhall Mount (former St Mary’s Convent School), Worcester

Battenhall Mount / St. Mary's Convent School

An abandoned Roman Catholic school with impressive original Italian style features as well as classrooms.

Visited February 2017  UK Battenhall Avenue, Worcester, West Midlands, UK Disused, Abandoned

St Mary’s Convent School was originally Battenhall Mount, an impressive house built around 1865-9 for William Spriggs, a Quaker and Worcester Clothier, in the Italianate style popularised by Prince Albert. In the 1890s the house was enlarged in a matching style by the architect John Henry Williams of Worcester for the Hon. Alfred Percy Allsopp. Allsopp was a local brewer who owned the Star Hotel and was Mayor of Worcester in 1892, 1894 and 1905. The original house is now incorporated into the South West corner of the property.

Battenhall Mount, Worcester - The gatehouse on Battenhall Avenue
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – The gatehouse on Battenhall Avenue

The building was used as a convalescent home during the First World War. It then became the home of the Sisters of St. Marie Madeleine Postel, a Roman Catholic Teaching Order, in 1933. St. Mary’s was a popular and well-regarded independent nursery and school until its closure in 2014.

Battenhall Mount, Worcester - External of the original Italian styled building
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – External of the original Italian styled building
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - The Italianate style continues inside
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – The Italianate style continues inside
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Underneath a column-supported bridge in the Italian styled original buildings
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Underneath a column-supported bridge in the Italian styled original buildings
Battenhall Mount - Looking across the bridge
Battenhall Mount – Looking across the bridge
 
Battenhall Mount - Italian styled hall
Battenhall Mount – Italian styled hall
Battenhall Mount - Grand fireplace
Battenhall Mount – Grand fireplace
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Fireplace in the grand music room
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Fireplace in the grand music room
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - A stage at the other end of the music room
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – A stage at the other end of the music room
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Bay windows and elegant ceiling
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Bay windows and elegant ceiling
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Grand staircase with pictures hanging on the wall
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Grand staircase with pictures hanging on the wall
Battenhall Mount - Entrance lobby
Battenhall Mount – Entrance lobby
 
Battenhall Mount - Top of the tower
Battenhall Mount – Top of the tower
Battenhall Mount - Wood panelled room
Battenhall Mount – Wood panelled room
 
Battenhall Mount - Music practice room
Battenhall Mount – Music practice room
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Plush drawing room
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Plush drawing room
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Conference room
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Conference room
Battenhall Mount - Library shelves
Battenhall Mount – Library shelves
 
Battenhall Mount - The library
Battenhall Mount – The library

More recent additional school buildings

Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Corridor leading to the later classrooms
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Corridor leading to the later classrooms
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - More corridors
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – More corridors
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Cloak rooms
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Cloak rooms
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Science lab, just it was the day it closed
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Science lab, just it was the day it closed
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Science lab
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Science lab
Battenhall Mount - Scales in lab
Battenhall Mount – Scales in lab
 
Battenhall Mount - Textiles classroom
Battenhall Mount – Textiles classroom
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Arts and Crafts Classroom
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Arts and Crafts Classroom
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - More modern science classroom
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – More modern science classroom
Battenhall Mount - Classroom
Battenhall Mount – Classroom
Battenhall Mount - Computer room
Battenhall Mount – Computer room
 
Battenhall Mount - Food Tech Room
Battenhall Mount – Food Tech Room
Battenhall Mount - Another lab
Battenhall Mount – Another lab
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - One of the large, older styled classrooms
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – One of the large, older styled classrooms
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Sinks in a bathroom
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Sinks in a bathroom
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - View from stage in the hall
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – View from stage in the hall
Battenhall Mount, Worcester - Trampoline in the school hall
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – Trampoline in the school hall

Externals of the main buildings

Battenhall Mount, Worcester - The later school buildings
Battenhall Mount, Worcester – The later school buildings
Battenhall Mount - Original building
Battenhall Mount – Original building
 
Battenhall Mount - Side entrance
Battenhall Mount – Side entrance
Battenhall Mount - Rear elevation of the original building
Battenhall Mount – Rear elevation of the original building

Nursery

The nursery was in a separate building, set a little away from the main buildings

Battenhall Mount - Open plan foyer of the nursery
Battenhall Mount – Open plan foyer of the nursery
Battenhall Mount - Nursery classroom
Battenhall Mount – Nursery classroom
Battenhall Mount - Tin cloakroom in the nursery
Battenhall Mount – Tin cloakroom in the nursery
Battenhall Mount - High chairs for the really young kids
Battenhall Mount – High chairs for the really young kids
Author: Andy Kay | Facebook | Flickr | Instagram

21 thoughts on Battenhall Mount (former St Mary’s Convent School), Worcester

  1. I live in Worcester and have never actually been inside here, I pass it most days and always admire the building. Super excited when I saw you have been inside, great photos, keep up the good work.

    • I live just around the corner from here and really hope it’s preserved and used. It looks in such good condition.

  2. It’s being turned into a retirement village – relatively sympathetically it looks like. (It’s my old school: not seen inside these buildings since the ’80s. Little changed, it seems!)

  3. This was my school in the early 90’s and I loved going here. Sad it closed down but happy it’s being turned into something that could come of good use instead of it staying empty

  4. my school from 1959-62, so sad to see it’s gone, a retirement village would be a perfect use for that beautiful building

  5. I really enjoyed seeing these photos. I was a pupil at the school in the ’60s – 70s; I felt like a ghost wandering through those corridors and classrooms again!

  6. I went to the convent in the 50s the nuns taught us and wore the old fashioned wimple very interesting times. Alison Shaw now Grice

  7. What a lovely building I hope who ever develops it does so with great sensitivity or could it be an annexe to nunery wood sixth form and keep it in circulation a lot of what you need already their

  8. So sad to see it abandoned like that. I’m an ex pupil too and glad it’s hopefully going to be sympathetically transformed. So many memories. It hasn’t changed much since I left in the 80s!!

  9. PC White I remember you so well Patricia (Pat) also Pat Rance and so many more – Jane Rochford 1958 – 1963

  10. I was at St Mary’s during ther 50s. I wonder if we met. Marian (was DANCE) great friends with Ann Smith (was WILSON) and Judith Pingriff (was KEETLEY). Lovely times and I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Sister Celene, Sr Eucharia, St Joseph etc. Oh happy days.

  11. I was a boarder at the age of 6 in the late 1950s. I have many special memories of my time at the school both happy and sad. It was a wonderful place to have as a school and to live in . I think it will make a lovely retirement complex and I am thankful that the building has been saved
    Irene Mawby (nee Mullett)

  12. Wow very interested to see these pictures of my old school I was there from 4 to 18, in the 60’s. It is so weird to see it again when I was their it was full of nuns. But why was it just abandoned?

  13. Some of the details of this building are not italianate at all but almost literal copies of Spanish renaissance buildings. For instance, the columns imitate those of the Casa de Miranda in Burgos (see here: https://www.verpueblos.com/castilla+y+leon/burgos/burgos/foto/1730176/) and the mensulae that are seen throug the column supported bridge are inspired in those at Palacio de Monterrey in Salamanca (see here: https://www.revistaad.es/lugares/articulos/amo-mi-barrio-siete-joyas-calle-san-pablosalamanca/28990)

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