The Jubilee Heritage Project 2009 - 2011...

The Jubilee 400 Heritage Project was created by the Bar Convent Trustees to work with the York community of the Congregation of Jesus (CJ). During the three year period of the Jubilee 400 Celebrations the aim is to realise their ambition of creating a centre of living heritage in commemoration and celebration of their foundress, Mary Ward, and the subsequent advancement in the education of Catholic women carried out by the sisters who followed in her footsteps.

The Jubilee 400 Heritage Project aims to raise funds to the value of £500,000, between September 2008 and January 2011, through sponsorship, donations and events, to enable the Bar Convent Trust, in collaboration with the Congregation of Jesus, to renovate and update the Bar Convent Museum and redevelop it as a centre of living heritage.

This will improve accessibility to its target audiences as well as enhancing its educational, spiritual and historical standing in the local community, in accordance with its charitable status. In this context the “Museum” includes the ground floor, upstairs gallery and corridor of the current Museum, the Great Parlour and magnificent Victorian Entrance Hall.

The Museum tells a fascinating story of how the sisters of the Community lived and worked in secrecy to preserve their way of life in times of terrible persecution, as well as the lack of recognition of the value of education for girls and women, and the contribution they could make to society.

The objective of the Jubilee 400 Heritage Project is to restore and preserve the historical and architectural integrity of the building currently used as the “Museum”, and to revitalise its educational role by creating a new vision for the building as a
centre of living heritage , thereby creating a better understanding of:

Recusant history

Mary Ward's incredible story and the foundation of her congregation

The foundation of the Bar Convent, its community and school

The place of the Bar Convent community and school in the history of the Catholic faith
in the north of England and in the social history of York

The international mission and worldwide apostolic service of the Congregation of Jesus and the IBVM Loreto sisters

The architectural significance and development of the Bar Convent, and the changing use of the complex over the centuries

If you would like to know about the Jubilee Heritage Project please click here.

If you would like to know about Mary Ward and the Bar Convent please click here.

If you would like to make a donation to the Project please print off the Donation Form.
Cheques should be payable to ‘The Bar Convent Trust'.