A Tribute to the

Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux

The Sisters at a Thanksgiving Mass held at St. Peter's Catholic Church, Stalybridge in October 2003

A Blue Plaque in recognition of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Bordeaux

The Sisters were invited to Stalybridge by Canon John Carroll, parish priest of St. Peter's Catholic Church, to assist with the pastoral care of families and the growth in education for children.

On July 31st 1883, five Sisters arrived from Rock Ferry, Birkenhead and took up residence in Spring Bank Street, Stalybridge.

Their names were; Sisters Joseph O'Toole, Anastasia Stapleton, Bernardine Walsh, Josephine Callan, and Germaine Edmonds.

At the time of their arrival, Stalybridge was a small mill town, which began its rapid expansion in 1776 with the building of its first cotton mill, where carding, the untangling of raw cotton, was done by water power. Men, women and children flocked from Scotland, Wales and Ireland to the Tame Valley seeking work in the mills, their accents mingling with the homely dialect of the Pennine Dales. With such a cross section of backgrounds, it must have been difficult to build a cohesive society.

Spring Bank Street was in the Castle Hall area of Stalybridge and close to St. Peter's Church. The church had opened in 1839 and part of the building was used as a Sunday school and Night school, which tried to provide the basics of education for children working in the mills. This later became the parish school after the Education Act of 1870 and was the first school in the district. The housing consisted of small cottages occupied by the mill workers, who were mostly Irish, and their families. They were forced to work 12 hours a day, for 6 days a week. For this work men earned a wage of 12 shillings a week, the equivalent of 60p today; women earned 8 shillings and children, who also worked in the mills from the age of 8 years, earned 1 shilling, or 5p in today's money.

To this social background the Sisters brought their own sense of what was needed to build up and give meaning to a society of people. This stemmed from their Founder, a French priest, Pierre Noailles, who set the quality and equality of human life as of the highest value.

The Sisters of the Holy Family first came to England in 1853 to minister to the poor. Their philosophy was that a life of poverty which surrounded the people could only be improved through education, particularly that of girls. Not only were they the first to establish education in the Diocese of Leeds, but after the Education Act of 1870, they established a College for the initial training of their own teachers. At this time higher education was available to only a few.

Thus their work in education in those early years in Stalybridge has prepared the way for countless numbers to lift themselves out of poverty and drudgery and enabled them to have a better quality of life. As well as their work in education, their weekends were spent visiting families, particularly the poor, and visiting the sick in their homes and in hospital. Their work in the schools and among families was not easy, particularly in the early years, but difficulties were overcome due to the tenacity of the pioneering Sisters and those who came after them.

In 1948, plans were afoot by the Town Council to demolish the houses around Castle Hall and the Sisters moved to 245 Mottram Road which was still near enough for them to continue their work in school and in the parish. Today, there is a new housing complex in Castle Hall, but by the roadside, buttressed by stonework, is a tree almost 100 feet high. This is the spot where the Old Convent stood in Spring Bank Street and where the blue plaque is situated. The tree is a reminder of those early years, when people toiled long hours for a pittance and where children helped to provide for the family at the expense of their education and childhood.

In the late 1960s, the Sisters entered wholeheartedly into the work of ecumenism, sharing faith with the people of other Christian Churches in Stalybridge, among whom close links have been made. They eagerly engaged in promoting the participation of lay people in decision making processes within the parish and thus faithfully continued what they had set out to build up - a society where people were valued and their talents developed and recognised.

The last Holy Family Sister to teach in St. Peter's was Sister Mary Cress, who retired in 1992. The Sisters continued to visit families and in latter years devoted most of their time to the elderly, especially the housebound.

In 2003, because of ageing personnel and declining numbers, the Sisters withdrew from Stalybridge. What began in 1883 has been transformed. Their presence, work and influence have enabled the people of Stalybridge to continue the work of education and especially the care of the housebound and elderly in their homes.

In October 2003, a Thanksgiving Mass was held at St. Peter's for the work of the Holy Family Sisters in Stalybridge and Hattersley. The parish presented Sister Hilary and Sister Columbia (the last two sisters to serve St. Peter's) with spiritual bouquets and Sister Kate, the Provincial of the Holy Family Sisters with a cheque. In return the sisters presented the parishes with statues of the Holy Family and commemorative plaques.

Acknowledgements

• The Holy Family Sisters of Bordeaux
• The Associates of the Holy Family
• Father Bernard Forshaw, St. Peter's Catholic Church, Stalybridge
• Parishioners of St. Peter's Catholic Church, Stalybridge
• Tameside Local Studies Library

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