Miss EllenTaylor and Bishop Scandella - Frederick Stanley Carpenter and General Drake,
Miss Jacinta Scandella and Father Thomas McAuliffe - Mary Ann Fairchild
Mary Parody and George Fairchild - Sister Eustochium Norton and Isabel Garcia
Brother Virgilius Jones and Mrs Rumbo - Sisters Loreto Walsh and Ermenilda Gleeson
Sisters Stanislau Kane and Hildegarde Galbally - Sister Josephine Harte
Sisters Theodora Merlehan and de Britto Longford - Sister Ignatius Byrne
Sisters Assmpta Ryan and Scolastica Taylor - Sister Gonzalez Egan and Lally Rumbo
We may assume that poor Mother Berchmans Lenigan had not indulged to excess either in cucumbers or in brandy, and that her moral habits were above reproach. Although she spent a very short time on the Rock her presence helped to change the course of history for Loreto in Gibraltar.
The open spaces of ‘the South’ contrasted with the densely populated Town area. Bishop Scandella was hoping to develop part of this large site as a home for St Bernard’s Boys’ College, which over the years had been moved a number of times and had undergone several changes regarding its educational purpose. In January 1865 on the Feast of St Francis de Sales the nuns and a few pupils from “St Aloysius” in Waterport Street moved into a cottage on the Europa Road side of the premises. The area for the most part was still a building site.
Europa Pass with Buenavista Barracks on the right
Nevertheless in the surrounding area there were:
… beautiful gardens, public as well as private; a spacious parade, fine walks shaded with trees and handsome octangular arbours surmounted by cupolas, where persons may sit and enjoy the view of the Bay and the coast of Spain on the other side. Here is the New Mole Parade, Rosia and Bonavista [sic] forming separate villages, with their extensive barracks and hospitals, while the hill in the background rises to a height of twelve hundred feet, covered with scanty vegetation of prickly shrubs, thistles and short grass.
Alterations had to be made to the ‘cottage’ before it was suitable as a Convent. Moving to Europa with the nuns was Miss EllenTaylor, now a postulant of some months’ standing. She had arrived in Gibraltar seven years earlier with her parents. At about this time a dispute arose between the Admiralty and Bishop Scandella. A letter referring to the matter was sent to Dr Scandella on the 8th of August advising him not to incur further expense until the issue had been resolved.
Staff at the Europa site Cottage
Back row: Mrs Rumbo (?) Sisters Loreto Walsh, Ermenilda Gleeson, Stanislau Kane, Hildegarde Galbally and Josephine Harte
Front Row: Sisters Theodora Merlehan, de Britto Longford, Ignatius Byrne, Assmpta Ryan (Superior) Scolastica Taylor, Gonzalez Egan and Lally Rumbo (?)
It seems that the Bishop’s buildings on the east side of the site had encroached upon Crown Property near the Admiralty’s boundary wall to the extent of about ten feet beyond what had been agreed. At first the Colonial Government decided it would have to be pulled down but Bishop Scandella came up with a proposal to which the Military Authorities agreed, and in the event the construction was allowed to remain . . .
Before the Bishop took out his first lease on the property this “cottage” had been rented since 1859 by Frederick Stanley Carpenter, the new Deputy Commissaries General. Having been advised by his predecessor Deputy Commissaries General Drake, he decided to rent a house “in the public quarter” instead of using the allocated officers’ quarters. In his Diary he writes:
I was fortunate to find a house out of town, to the south of the Rock. It was about a half mile up a hill and had a fine view of the Bay, Barbary Hills and Algiers [sic] opposite. In clear weather we could see Tangiers. We also had the sight of the Signal Station which was useful, as we could see the signals showing what steamer was expected and then to watch her coming round Tarifa Point.
The chief part about the house was that, being long, it had the drawing room and three bedrooms on one floor with the dining room and two sitting rooms above, on the second floor. There was a separate wing approached by a veranda, and a garden with marble statues in front above the road. Our drawing room opened on a terrace over the road.
"A fine view of the Bay" ( 1852 - Gorge Pechell Mends ) (See LINK)
When . . .Carpenter moved out of his rented accommodation Bishop Scandella took out a lease on the site and though building works continued in the whole area the nuns and their handful of students were able to move in. The Bishop himself lived just above the convent in a separate building on the same site, to the north and east of their ‘cottage’.
With him lived his sister Miss Jacinta Scandella, Father Thomas McAuliffe who was the Chaplain to the Forces and also acted as the Bishop’s Secretary, a coachman, a gardener (both Portuguese), a couple of maids and fifteen-year-old Mary Ann Fairchild, orphaned daughter of Mary Parody from Catalan Bay and George Fairchild her English soldier husband. She was the Bishop’s laundress.
Soon the Sisters took in boarders, mostly from Spain . . In later years Gibraltarian girls whose parents were away on business or who lived in Spain were also taken as boarders at the school in Europa.
In 1865 Sister Eustochium Norton arrived in Gibraltar from Killarney. . . The following year, 1866, nineteen-year-old Isabel Garcia from San Roque (later Sister Trinidad) entered with Loreto in Gibraltar. St Joseph’s Church was now completed and a school for the district was set up in the crypt of the new Church. This consisted of a large room divided in two by a partition.
St Joseph's Church
The school, of course, was called St Joseph’s. Ellen Taylor (now Sister Scholastica) was the first nun to teach at St Joseph’s. She taught the girls in one half of the crypt and in the other half boys were taught by male lay teachers. Sixteen years later the Christian Brothers returned to Gibraltar in 1878 after an absence of forty-one years. From 1882 the boys at St Joseph’s, separated from the girls’ by a glass door, were taught by Brother Virgilius Jones. . . .The first books for the girls at St Joseph’s were again sent out from Rathfarnham.
We may assume that poor Mother Berchmans Lenigan had not indulged to excess either in cucumbers or in brandy, and that her moral habits were above reproach. Although she spent a very short time on the Rock her presence helped to change the course of history for Loreto in Gibraltar.
The open spaces of ‘the South’ contrasted with the densely populated Town area. Bishop Scandella was hoping to develop part of this large site as a home for St Bernard’s Boys’ College, which over the years had been moved a number of times and had undergone several changes regarding its educational purpose. In January 1865 on the Feast of St Francis de Sales the nuns and a few pupils from “St Aloysius” in Waterport Street moved into a cottage on the Europa Road side of the premises. The area for the most part was still a building site.
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"The open spaces of the South" ( 1825 - John Varley )
Nevertheless in the surrounding area there were:
… beautiful gardens, public as well as private; a spacious parade, fine walks shaded with trees and handsome octangular arbours surmounted by cupolas, where persons may sit and enjoy the view of the Bay and the coast of Spain on the other side. Here is the New Mole Parade, Rosia and Bonavista [sic] forming separate villages, with their extensive barracks and hospitals, while the hill in the background rises to a height of twelve hundred feet, covered with scanty vegetation of prickly shrubs, thistles and short grass.
Alterations had to be made to the ‘cottage’ before it was suitable as a Convent. Moving to Europa with the nuns was Miss EllenTaylor, now a postulant of some months’ standing. She had arrived in Gibraltar seven years earlier with her parents. At about this time a dispute arose between the Admiralty and Bishop Scandella. A letter referring to the matter was sent to Dr Scandella on the 8th of August advising him not to incur further expense until the issue had been resolved.
It seems that the Bishop’s buildings on the east side of the site had encroached upon Crown Property near the Admiralty’s boundary wall to the extent of about ten feet beyond what had been agreed. At first the Colonial Government decided it would have to be pulled down but Bishop Scandella came up with a proposal to which the Military Authorities agreed, and in the event the construction was allowed to remain . . .
Before the Bishop took out his first lease on the property this “cottage” had been rented since 1859 by Frederick Stanley Carpenter, the new Deputy Commissaries General. Having been advised by his predecessor Deputy Commissaries General Drake, he decided to rent a house “in the public quarter” instead of using the allocated officers’ quarters. In his Diary he writes:
I was fortunate to find a house out of town, to the south of the Rock. It was about a half mile up a hill and had a fine view of the Bay, Barbary Hills and Algiers [sic] opposite. In clear weather we could see Tangiers. We also had the sight of the Signal Station which was useful, as we could see the signals showing what steamer was expected and then to watch her coming round Tarifa Point.
The chief part about the house was that, being long, it had the drawing room and three bedrooms on one floor with the dining room and two sitting rooms above, on the second floor. There was a separate wing approached by a veranda, and a garden with marble statues in front above the road. Our drawing room opened on a terrace over the road.
When . . .Carpenter moved out of his rented accommodation Bishop Scandella took out a lease on the site and though building works continued in the whole area the nuns and their handful of students were able to move in. The Bishop himself lived just above the convent in a separate building on the same site, to the north and east of their ‘cottage’.
With him lived his sister Miss Jacinta Scandella, Father Thomas McAuliffe who was the Chaplain to the Forces and also acted as the Bishop’s Secretary, a coachman, a gardener (both Portuguese), a couple of maids and fifteen-year-old Mary Ann Fairchild, orphaned daughter of Mary Parody from Catalan Bay and George Fairchild her English soldier husband. She was the Bishop’s laundress.
Soon the Sisters took in boarders, mostly from Spain . . In later years Gibraltarian girls whose parents were away on business or who lived in Spain were also taken as boarders at the school in Europa.
In 1865 Sister Eustochium Norton arrived in Gibraltar from Killarney. . . The following year, 1866, nineteen-year-old Isabel Garcia from San Roque (later Sister Trinidad) entered with Loreto in Gibraltar. St Joseph’s Church was now completed and a school for the district was set up in the crypt of the new Church. This consisted of a large room divided in two by a partition.
The school, of course, was called St Joseph’s. Ellen Taylor (now Sister Scholastica) was the first nun to teach at St Joseph’s. She taught the girls in one half of the crypt and in the other half boys were taught by male lay teachers. Sixteen years later the Christian Brothers returned to Gibraltar in 1878 after an absence of forty-one years. From 1882 the boys at St Joseph’s, separated from the girls’ by a glass door, were taught by Brother Virgilius Jones. . . .The first books for the girls at St Joseph’s were again sent out from Rathfarnham.