Moving from Ware to Chelsea - 1975
When I think of the move of Allen Hall from St Edmund’s College, Ware to Chelsea, the first thought that comes to mind is generosity. We had been actively looking for a new home for the seminary for over seven years — ever since Cardinal Heenan had decided that it was necessary for the seminary to move from our Hertfordshire home. Members of the seminary staff including Canon Peter Boume, Father Lional Swain, Father Tim Firth and myself as Rector, had visited several locations in London looking for suitable sites. We even visited a site in the Southwark Diocese! We were looking for premises to house a small college of perhaps fifty students, ten staff, lecture rooms, library, chapel and community rooms. Obviously funds were limited and property in London, as always, was very expensive. For one reason or another all the sites we visited proved unsatisfactory. We thus had almost despaired of finding a new site.
It was at this juncture that Sister Mary Joseph stepped forward and offered the Convent of Marie Réparatrice in Beaufort Street to the diocese for use as a seminary. It was an act of remarkable generosity fully supported by the other Sisters and their Mother General. Without that offer, the move might have been delayed for years or postponed indefinitely.
The second generous gesture I remember was that of the Headmaster of St Edmund’s College, Father Michael Garvey. Allen Hall had been at St Edmund’s College, Ware for nearly two hundred years — combining with the school to make one institution in two departments. After so much sharing how could a parting be amicably agreed? That it was agreed involved considerable give and take and Father Garvey, having been a student in both the school and the seminary, was generous to a fault.
My third memory of generosity was that of the staff and students of Allen Hall. Early on we agreed that the move must inconvenience the seminary as little as possible. This required meticulous planning. We approached Pickfords to discuss the move. They estimated that it would take eight weeks to move Allen Hall and cost something like £15,000. I told Pickfords that we did not have that sort of money, a considerable sum in those days, nor the time they wanted. In the end, they provided the pantechnicans and drivers and we did everything else. Pickfords thought we would never manage it. That we did was due to the generosity and whole hearted cooperation and enthusiasm of the Allen Hall staff and students. We were determined that the routine of the seminary would be disrupted as little as possible. We advanced the summer examinations, the retreat and the ordinations by one week and I announced that the summer holiday would commence when the move had been completed! I have never seen people work so hard. Pickfords was astonished at our work rate and, on the spot, offered all of us holiday jobs!
The move took eight days, instead of the predicted eight weeks, and we had to cook, feed and fend for ourselves during that period. Despite all this many students maintained that the move was the most enjoyable and positive experience of their time in training. The community, both staff and students, really came into its own. Imagine cataloguing and moving thousands of library books, the contents of dozens of rooms, up and down endless flights of steps. It was an amazing experience.
Nor did the generosity end with the move. As soon as Allen Hall reassembled in September we had to tackle the gardens. Builders had been in possession of the old convent for two years, modifying, renovating and decorating it. No one had touched the garden for two years except to use it as a dump for rubble and rubbish from the Convent. It was a small number of students who determined to transform the rubbish dump into the garden we have today. To them and to the staff who volunteered with them, we owe a great debt as we do to all whose generosity contributed to the great move of thirty years ago.