5th Nov 1686

Mother Frances Bedingfield, under the alias Frances Long, purchased a house and garden on Blossom Street for £450 (the gift of Sir Thomas Gascoigne)and a small community of sisters opened a boarding school for the daughters of Catholic families.

1696

The house was attacked by a fanatical mob but was saved, it was said, by the occupants of the Windmill Inn opposite, by the appearence of St. Michael on a white horse. The Community have kept their devotion to St. Michael to this day and also invoke his aid in time of need.

Pursuivants searched the house several times during this period and Francis Bedingfield and her niece Dorothy Bedingfield was imprisoned.

1699

The nuns opened a day school, with no fees charged. Soon after Francis Bedingfield was recalled to our house in Munich. She had been present at the death of Mary Ward and was alive for the "Approbation of the Rule" by Clement IX in 1703. She died in 1704. Mother Dorothy Paston Bedingfield took her place as Superior.

1727

The community were in great financial distress. The situation was saved by the entry of two novices; Elizabeth Stansfield and Ann Aspinal. Elizabeth's fortune paid the community debts. The practical ability of Ann brought an increase in pupils, financial stability and building expansion.

1760

Ann Aspinal was made Superior. She chose Thomas Atkinson as architect of the building projects. Together they planned the demolition of the original house and the construction round an open courtyard of the new school and community accommodation. The foundation stone for the first building, the beautiful chapel, similar in style to a church outside Rome , was laid in 1766.

27th April 1769

The first Mass was offered in the new chapel. As Catholic places of worship were still illegal the neoclassical chapel was hidden in the complex of buildings and the sunken dome, reduced in height, was camouflaged by a slate roof. A priests' hiding hole and eight exits were a precaution against surprise visits from the authorities.

1777

The first Catholic Relief Act repealed some of the oppressive laws against Catholics.
However, this was follows by the Gordon Riots and other demonstrations, and in 1788 the Bar Convent itself was in danger.

1789

The French Revolution

1790

With the growth of religious freedom, the nuns of the Bar Convent resumed the religious habit which they had been unable to wear in England during penal times.

Also in 1790 the clock face was inserted in the central front pediment. The hands were driven by the Henry Hindley clock constructed 20 years earlier to face the internal courtyard.

1791

Following the second Catholic Reform Act, a licence was granted to the Bar Convent chapel as a public place of worship after its secret existence for 22 years.

1792

From 1792 onwards there were many émigré priests in York, some of whom received shelter at the Bar Convent for shorter or longer periods. Mother Catherine Rouby, the Superior gave hospitality to fugitive nuns - Carmelites from Brabant, Poor Clares from Dunkirk and Canonesses of the Holy Scepulchre from Liege. Emigré families sent their daughters to the school, three of whom became nuns in the community.

1803 - 1815

Napoleonic Wars

October 1803

Joseph Aloysius Hansom was baptised in the chapel. He was the architect of Arundel Cathedral and Birmingham Town Hall and the inventor of the hansom cab. The family lived in Micklegate and his aunt, Martha Hansom, was a member of the Bar Convent Community.

1810

Elizabeth Coyney succeeded Catherine Rouby as Superior.
The exiled French priests had brought news that in 1749 Pope Benedict XIV, through
a Papal Bull, had ruled that Mary Ward was not to be claimed as foundress. Mother Coyney,
in a desire to show obedience, made every effort to obliterate the memory of Mary
Ward by burning all books and papers which contained her name. The exiled priests were
also influencing the community to become monastic.

1816

Due to the Napoleonic wars the Bar Convent became cut off from the Institute in Germany. Mother Coyney feared that the institute no longer existed. She petitioned the Pope for the Bar Convent to be placed under the authority of the Northern Vicar Apostolic, Bishop Gibson and to adopt strict enclosure. She also asked one of the French priests to write new, monastic constitutions. The Bar Convent did not rejoin the main body of the Institute until 1911.

1812-1816

Archbishop Murray sent Frances Ball and Mary Aikenhead from Dublin for religious formation at the Bar Convent in preparation for new foundations in Ireland. Mary Aikenhead became foundress of the Irish Sisters of Charity (now renamed Religious Sisters of Charity), famous for their work among the poor and dying.

1821

Frances (Teresa) Ball founded the Irish branch of the Institute known as the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary(IBVM), Loreto.

1825

Mother Coyney laid out the Convent cemetery in the grounds in order to elude the
Resurrection Men who were very active in York in the 1820's and who, it was feared,
might exhume for dissection the Sisters buried in the graveyard of Holy Trinity Church,
Micklegate.

1829

The Catholic Emancipation Act gave full political rights to Catholics.

1835 -
1844

More buildings constructed, this time by G T Andrews - architect of the 'old' York railway station. He added a new community wing and kitchens and rebuilt the Day School (The Boarding School and Day School were amalgamated in 1921 to become one school)

1846

Introduction of school holidays. Baths also installed and shortly after heating in the chapel.

1850

Restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy resulting in new influx of converts. Cardinal
Newman was a friend of the house.

1852

Nuns go to teach at the St. George's School in Walmgate, where the Irish immigrants were living in an appalling state of poverty and destitution.

1877

Under Mother Juliana Martin, the York community played a leading part in gaining full Approbation and Confirmation of the Institute by a decree of Pope Pius IX.

1898

The York Community made a foundation of a school in Cambridge .

1909

Pope Pius X promulgated a decree vindicating Mary Ward as the Foundress of the Institute. The English members of Mary Ward's Institute played an important part in the reinstatement of Mary Ward as Foundress.

1914-1918

World War One
Belgian nuns and refugee children were given a home in the convent. The concert hall was converted into a hospital ward for wounded soldiers.

1925

Reverend Mother General Isabella Wild made the first canonical visitation to England since the 17th Century.

1928

The Bar Convent Association was formed to provide a network for past pupils.

1929

The school was recognised by the Board of Education in 1923 and received Direct Grant status in 1929 as the Bar Convent Grammar School.

1939 -
1945

World War Two
During World War Two the Bar Convent was bombed and five nuns killed 28th April 1942.

1950-1975

Movement into the area brought large numbers onto the school roll. The number of pupils increased from 300+ to 600+. Restoration of the bomb damaged area gave new science accommodation. Later a Preparatory school wing was built, a new classroom wing then followed and a Gym wing was built with physics and mathematics rooms.

House 21 was taken into the school to house the Sixth Form. By 1975, with the additional numbers, the school employed 35 lay staff as well as sisters.

1977

The Bar Convent School changed its name to the Bar Convent Grammar School as it
began to take boys as well as girls, first in the Sixth Form and then from the age of 11.
Up till then there had been no Catholic grammar school for boys in York.

By 1985 the school had become mixed at every level, from 11 to 18.

1985

The Bar Grammar School was transferred over to the Diocese of Middlesbrough to become part of the new Comprehensive school system as All Saints School. The Bar Convent Trust was established to preserve the Grade 1 Georgian buildings which were not required by the school and the Bar Convent Museum was set up, with associated educational activities.

1996 - present day

Following the closure of the Bar Convent for a year, a Business Manager was appointed by the Trust and a bed and breakfast and meeting room facility were added to the Bar Convent Trust's activities.