St Clare'S Abbey, Lodge, Walls And Ancillary Garden Buildings

St Clare's Abbey is a convent built in 1856-7 by Joseph Aloysius Hansom and Charles Hansom for the Order of Poor Clare Sisters. The complex comprises ranges of buildings arranged around five open, cloistered quadrangles, together with an associated graveyard, garden walls and outbuildings, all contained within a perimeter wall with entrance gateway and lodge.

The buildings are constructed of red brick with ashlar dressings under Welsh slate roofs. The ranges vary from one to three storeys and are arranged in a Victorian Gothic Revival style with attics and basements. Roofs are mainly pitched with eaves cornices, and the buildings stand on plinths. Windows throughout are predominantly pointed arched with cusped heads.

The east elevation presents a varied composition. At the far right stands a plain single-storey cross gable with a pointed arched doorway and trefoil opening above. To the left, a single-storey entrance range features a gabled porch supported by diagonal buttresses, with a tall chimney to the right. The wide main entrance has a head-stopped drip mould, and above it a pinnacled and crocketed niche containing a statue of St Clare, flanked by smaller blind niches bearing coats of arms including that of the Franciscan Order. Windows in this range have fixed mullions. A cross range to the left, formerly the Chaplain's house, displays a prominent Tudor chimney and a striking double-height canted bay window with five-light mullions and an ornate stone roof with paired lights above. The entrance range is linked to the chapel by a single-storey cloister walk.

The south elevation features a cross range with stepped corner buttresses. At ground floor level are cross windows either side of a central buttress that supports a stone carved oriel window of four lights with a Tudor flower eaves cornice. Stone crests sit in blind niches to either side, with a single lancet above having a head-stopped drip mould. Attached to the left is a single-storey cloister walk with a central gabled entrance featuring chamfered soffits and jambs and a double boarded door. A niche and statue sit above, surmounted by a stone cross. Windows to either side have plate tracery and head-stopped hood moulds. A three-bay buttressed range to the left has a pitched slate roof, raised coping and a stone cross on the left side, with eaves cornice and band. Windows comprise two-light shoulder arched windows at ground floor, paired two-light cross windows at first floor, and paired single-light windows at second floor level. A brick garden wall with triangular stone coping is attached to the left.

The west elevation comprises a rear range of two storeys with attics and basements under a pitched roof with eaves cornice and plinth. Fenestration is scattered and mostly consists of cross windows, single lights, and three-light mullioned and transomed windows, though some are full roof dormers with vertical Tudor chimney stacks. A shouldered arched entrance sits at the bottom left. The two end bays project: the right bay has a five-light mullion and transom window at ground floor with cross windows at second floor and a three-light plate traceried window above, plus a blind niche with coat of arms at first floor level. The projecting left end bay has ground floor paired three-light mullioned and transomed windows with similar five-light windows above. A garden wall with triangular coping is attached at left. A short single-storey range links with a single-storey end range featuring full roof dormers, gable and axial ridge stacks. The right bay has a window of stepped lights extending into the roof dormer and a shouldered arched entrance.

The perimeter wall, with triangular coping, runs around the enclosure on all sides. On the east side it incorporates an entrance gateway and lodge, and on the west side a second entrance with heavy boarded double doors. The gatehouse and lodge is a two-bay, two-storey gabled building with pitched roofs, an axial ridge chimney and external Tudor stack to the right. The main entrance occupies the ground floor of the left bay and comprises a four-centred arched carriage entrance with adjacent similar pedestrian entrance. The domestic lodgings above are indicated by a three-light mullioned and transomed window and small cusped window in the apex of the gable. The right bay contains a canted bay window of five lights but is otherwise blind. The small extension to the right is not of special interest.

Internally, the east range of the entrance court has undergone recent refurbishment, but the Chaplain's house retains window panelling, shutters and cornices. The remainder of the abbey has plainly painted walls throughout with floors of parquet or wooden boards. Roofs include queen post and king post forms, and some roofs in the single-storey cloister walks are of open scissor trusses and coupled rafter form. Original fixtures and fittings of note include wooden doors with door furniture, pointed arch surrounds throughout, numerous stone fire surrounds (some with cast iron grates), fitted wooden cupboards, and features particular to the enclosed way of life including a grilled opening in the entrance vestibule and wooden 'turn' for receiving small items from outside the enclosure. All original wooden staircases are retained, including a carved open well stair on the west side of Church Court. Domestic and dining ranges on the north side have original hooded fireplaces.

Within the grounds stands a small graveyard with identical simple crosses, the earliest dated 1858, and a single grave marked by a flat stone monument. A tall high cross on a stepped plinth forms the focus of the design. Other buildings within the perimeter wall include garden walls with triangular coping, a summer house, a building against the west wall, and the remains of outbuildings in the north-west corner of the precinct.

The abbey was constructed for the Order of Poor Clare Sisters between 1856 and 1857 to designs by Joseph Aloysius Hansom, a leading Catholic architect of the time, under supervision of the Clerk of Works James Frith. Hansom took a personal interest in the foundation from the earliest time, advising the abbess on the choice of site and monitoring the work regularly. At times he contributed financially, and his daughter Winny was a pupil at the convent. The sisters have preserved a full set of records regarding the construction and subsequent use of the abbey, including original plans, photographs and financial accounts. Most important is a two-volume diary of James Frith in which all aspects of the building works are revealed from 7th April 1856 to 14th November 1857.

The buildings first appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1858 at 1:10560 scale immediately after their completion; the north end of the entrance range is incomplete and the grounds are undeveloped. The second edition map of 1899 at 1:2500 scale depicts the abbey in its complete state with landscaped grounds, graveyard, gatehouse and other garden buildings in place. Several outbuildings have been lost since 1939. The property was described by the late Dr Denis Evinson in his 1966 MA thesis as a chapel, ladies' school, grange and gatehouse.

Joseph Hansom had a varied career which included collaborating with a number of different architects, inventing the 'Hansom Cab', and founding the architectural magazine 'The Builder'. He is most renowned for the design of various churches, mostly Roman Catholic, and for Birmingham Town Hall. He was supported at St Clare's Abbey by his brother Charles Francis Hansom (1817-1888). Joseph Hansom was an independent-minded follower of the Gothic style advocated by A W N Pugin and, along with his brother Charles, he is considered to be a leader of Pugin imitators. In the work 'A Glimpse of Heaven', Joseph Hansom is described as 'an extraordinary Catholic talent' whose churches 'show his continuing and brilliant talent'.

The Order of Poor Clare Sisters, a Franciscan contemplative, enclosed order, built their first monastery in England in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1286. They subsequently moved to Antwerp in 1455 and then to St Omer. An extern Sister, Mary Ward, then established a community for English women at Gravelines, now Northern France, and the community increased and prospered with several other foundations established including one at Rouen. After the hardships of the French Revolution, including the loss of their liberty for a time, the Rouen Sisters moved back to England in 1795. After a brief stay in London, they moved to Haggerston Castle, Northumberland at the behest of Sir Carnaby Haggerston. In 1805 the order purchased Scorton Hall, North Yorkshire, where they remained until 1850 when a site for a new monastery was sought and twenty acres of land was purchased at a cost of £2000 from the adjacent Carmelite community in Darlington. The order remained in Darlington for over 150 years until 2007, when due to dwindling numbers they moved to join a sister community in Herefordshire and gifted the Darlington convent to the Brothers of the Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God. The daily life of the Poor Clares is occupied with both work and prayer and is a life of penance and contemplation, according to the rule of St Francis's collaborator, St Clare of Assisi, in 1253.