Our Lady'S Convent And School Adjoining

Our Lady's Convent and School is a convent that includes a chapel, priest's house, and school. Construction began in 1850 and continued over the following decades, with the chapel built between 1863 and 1864, alterations to the school in 1889, and the priest's house completed in the late 19th century. Designed by Charles Hansom, the buildings are made of red brick with whitened headers and stone dressings, topped with Swithland slate roofs (the school has a plain tile roof) featuring white brick crosses in the gable ends. The design is in the Gothic Revival style.

The convent buildings are arranged around a cloister porch, with the chapel to the west and the priest's house and school to the south. The school is connected to the convent by a range built in 1855, forming three sides of a quadrangle. The convent is two stories tall with an attic and has an east facade featuring a seven-window range. There is a four-centred doorway to the left, two dormers, and two red brick chimney stacks on the roof slope, with the left-hand stack having two lancet windows.

Most of the windows are pairs of cusped lancets, some with transoms, and are set beneath segmental brick relieving arches. The apsidal chapel has side chapels and is illuminated by "Geometrical" traceried windows (the ritual north windows are from the 20th century). Inside, the chapel features a waggon roof supported by corbels and a west gallery, with a reredos designed by Theodore Phyffers in 1873. The school was re-windowed to match the convent, and a two-story porch and verandah were added in 1889. There is also a mortuary chapel designed by Charles Hansom's son and an infant's school in the grounds built in an Italianate style. The convent serves as a house for the Rosminian sisters and was founded by Mary Agnes Amherst. The 20th-century additions to the school are not of special architectural interest.