Seafield Convent Grammar School - History Part II - Early Days

Early Days

Liverpool was never actually a target area for the Institute – it was purely by chance that the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary actually formed a base there. One sister, Madame St. Thomas Hennessy, who had been instrumental in forming the Institute’s base in Ireland was returning home with a sick novice. Unfortunately she was delayed and missed the boat at Liverpool leaving for Belfast. Unable to find alternative passage she was forced to stay a few days in the city, and fate lead her to meet the Reverend Thomas Kelly, the Parish Priest of St. James’ Bootle. Father Kelly had for many months been desperately seeking a religious order to cater for the spiritual and educational needs of the children in his parish. After consultation with Father Gailhac it was agreed to seek the Bishop’s approval for a foundation to be made. Permission was duly granted. A translation from the French copy of the letter received by the Reverend Mother from Mgr. Goss, Second Bishop of Liverpool, is printed below:

Liverpool, December 21st, 1871

Dear Reverend Mother,

I am ordered by his Lordship, the Bishop of Liverpool to inform you that he gives his approval and sanction to your making a foundation in his diocese in order that you may take care of the classes for the poor children of Bootle, that you may start a fee-paying day-school and boarding school in the Parish of St. James Bootle as was stated in your letter of 20th September last.

I am always your devoted servant in J.C. (Signed) John Augustine Fisher Vicar General

The order founded its Liverpool base in Sea View Road Bootle on 21 June 1872. Madame Eugéne, the niece of Father Gailhac became the Reverend Mother of the small community of eight. The foundation was a victim of its own success and soon found that it could no longer adequately provide for the increasing number of borders. A search began for a more suitable property, and this was when the Sisters discovered Seafield house in Seaforth, and the name which would remain with them for the next 93 years.

Seafield House in Seaforth was the home of James Fernie, a wealthy businessman who had made his fortune in shipping. He had helped form the International Marine Hydro Company, and with the money from this venture, planned to extend his house and property to create a first class hotel for transatlantic voyagers. The house was opened to great applause by the Earl of Lathom on 25 September 1882. An article in the Daily Express on 14 September 1967 described the new hotel:

“The house with the conservatories, winter gardens and recreation grounds, covers an area of 10 acres (40,000 m2) which has been carefully laid out in the most approved style, the hotel - an imposing structure with its three coronial towers, contains about 250 bedrooms all substantially, and many very elegantly, furnished, while the baths and all other conveniences are as near perfection as possible. It is said that there are 365 windows, one for each day of the year.”

Unfortunately the Hotel had been opened during a decline in the number of transatlantic passengers and so suffered from poor business. The house became known as its originator’s folly - “Fernie’s Folly” in this instance. The decline in Atlantic trade and shipping is marked by the fact that the Sisters purchased the property in 1884 - just two years after its triumphant opening.

There was little chance of the school outgrowing the new property or seeking more modern facilities and so it was expected that Seafield would remain the Institute’s home in Liverpool for good. However the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board (now Company under Peel Holdings) wished to purchase the property envisaging the need to enlarge the docks in the future. The offer, the value of which is still not entirely known, was to construct a purpose built convent of fully modern facilities and design somewhere close to Bootle. Despite rapidly expanding towns and great urbanization there were many areas, often close to the heart of local towns that were proposed, including a spacious plot off Moor Lane. The suggestion to build the new convent on land where Marldon Avenue now stands was quickly dropped on advice of one solicitor to the Nuns who pointed out the “problems” which could occur in building a girls school opposite Merchant Taylor’s Boy’s. For reasons unknown the Moor Lane site was brushed aside in favour of the Liverpool Road site, now called “New Hey”.

After the Order vacated Seafield house completely in 1908 it remained empty until 1912 when the Lancashire Asylum Board, under the West Derby Union leased it. Early on the morning of September 22, 1913 a great fire (not the first at the property it should be noted) destroyed two stories of the house, resulting in the re-construction of the North Wing. No one was charged in connection with the fire, although action by the suffragette movement was suspected. From this time onwards Seafield House catered for mentally deficient children, its coastal location believed to be of help to its patients. With the arrival of war in 1939 the house was turned over to treating casualties of the Battle of the Atlantic. The many rooms and facilities suited it to this need, and it remained a hospital until 1947. The house then remained empty until 1950 when the Government used it to house offices.