What was lost is found ……… and the race is on to save this bit of our history

 Now I fully appreciate that for some the story of convents, churches and even redundant pubs do not catch the imagination but each in their way make up our past.

The beautiful mosaic scheme 2025

One such bit is Carlton House on High Lane.

In it’s time it was a private residence, and then a convent, finishing as the Manchester Islamic High School for Girls, and is now part of a new development which spans High Lane, one side of Acres Road and a short stretch of Stockton Road.

And I have written about all its various stages, culminating in that mosaic of Our Lady on Stockton Road*.

I remember the mosaic and often wondered if it had survived underneath the big black and gold sign for the Islamic School and it has, which in itself is a rescue project, but now I understand from Bronwen O'Donoghue that “a beautiful mosaic scheme has just been uncovered. It was hidden beneath layers added in the 1980s when the Islamic school took over the site.

Our Lady, 2024

And there will be many former students of the convent who will remember them and want them preserved, to which I think there will be many who like me see those mosaics as an important story wanting to be recorded and kept.

The convent comes from that time in Chorlton’s history when there were many small and not so small schools catering for the growing middle class who were moving into Chorlton from the 1880s.

Convent of the Sisters of the Christian Retreat, 1959

They included private infant and junior schools as well as  “crammers” designed to offer quick paths to business and professional qualifications.  

One such was Mr Dadley's Grammar School on High Lane which occupied the two properties making up what was and is again Denbiegh Villas.

These schools occupied what had been private residences which is where Carlton House comes in and the story of the convent.

They stand in direct line to smaller private schools running back into the early nineteenth century which coexisted with the church school on the village green.

All of which makes the project of recovering and preserving the mosaics important as part of that continuous story of how our children were taught.

For those who want to read  about the development of the site just follow the link.**

So, it is all to work for.

Pictures; The beautiful mosaic scheme, uncovered 2025, courtesy of Bronwen O'Donoghue, Our Lady, 2024 from the collection of Andrew Simpson and Convent of the Sisters of the Christian Retreat, 1959, A.E. Landers, m17917, courtesy of Manchester Libraries, Information and Archives, Manchester City Council, http://images.manchester.gov

*Carlton House, https://chorltonhistory.blogspot.com/search/label/Carlton%20House

**Manchester City Council Planning Portal, Manchester Planning Portal, 37994/FO/2023. Erection of 12 no. 2.5 storey dwellinghouses; a pair of three storey semi-detached dwellinghouses; a three storey building comprising 6 no. apartments; the retention and change of use of the existing mansion house together with the erection of a two storey side extension to form 2 no. dwellinghouses; creation of vehicular access points, associated landscaping, car parking and boundary treatment following the demolition of the other existing buildings and structures. https://pa.manchester.gov.uk/online-applications/applicationDetails.do?activeTab=documents&keyVal=S0IQG9BCMGC00