Visitation Convent Boarding School, Bridport

A Memory of Bridport.

During the 1940s, I lived in Weymouth, but from May 1942, when I was 5, until July 1947, I was a boarder at the school.  I was happy there, and still remember the names of my teachers - Sister Anne, Sister Edith and Sister Magdalene, and also the names of many of the other nuns there then.  We had a walk every Tuesday and Saturday afternoon.  We walked in twos - with one nun leading the column and another bringing up the rear.  Sometimes we just went to West Bay, at other times we would go to Loders (which seemed very far) or Allington, Symondsbury Copse or Eype.  Meals were taken in silence(well, maybe not always total silence). We had to attend Mass every morning at 7.45 and before breakfast.  On Tuesday and Saturday evenings we attended Benediction.  I was an altar server and choirboy. On VE Day 1945 Union Jacks and Belgian flags were hanging from the top windows of the convent and we had a game of cricket in our convent field opposite. We had spiked iron railings around our playground and one morning in 1947, I happened to look out of one of the top windows of the convent building (before it was time to get up) and saw what seemed to be a grey shape draped over these railings.  A cow or bull had tried to jump them and killed itself in the attempt. Sadly, the school closed down about 1970, and the whole convent building was demolished in 2000. I last visited Bridport in 1994, so I haven't seen the houses which took its place.