Holy Child Schools | Society of the Holy Child Jesus
St. Leonards-on-Sea, England 03

Title: St. Leonards-on-Sea, England 03 
Source: European Province Archives 
Date: 1863 
Keywords: sleng 
Download: places/CCI-EUR-SLOS-03.jpg
Description: Convent of the Holy Child St. Leonards-on-Sea, England. "School life at St Leonards was punctuated by fairly regular high days and holidays, among which the students particularly enjoyed the annual picnic for the whole school. In 1863, on 26 May, the Tuesday after Whitsunday, the students, the nuns and the convent chaplain set off by train from St Leonards for a picnic in the romantic ruins of the Archbishop of Canterbury's pre-reformation palace at Mayfield. The train took them to Ticehurst and from there some of them walked and some got a ride in a large open-topped horsedrawn cart. Once they had all arrived, they laid out a large cloth on the grass near the ruins and spread out their picnic lunch: meat pies, boiled eggs, gingerbread, cakes, jam tarts and oranges. And a little fire was lit for the primus stove on which to make the chaplain's tea. We know all this because one of the students, Ceci Bellasis, who later became a Holy Child sister, produced delightful drawings of the journey and of the picnic. And it was that picnic in May 1863 which sparked the hope in Cornelia of purchasing the Mayfield property." (Sr. Judith Lancaster)
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