​Listing success for Norfolk Convent

All of Henry Woodyer’s extant houses of Mercy are now listed, as Abbe Pierre House and Holy Cross House (formerly the All Hallows house of Mercy and Convent) in Ditchingham, Norfolk, receives grade II status, after the Victorian Society submitted a listing application at the end of last year.

The listing covers the significant buildings including the original chapel by Woodyer and a later grander one attributed to Augustus Frere.

All Hallows Convent was built as a House of Mercy in 1859 to support fallen and unfortunate women.

The convent took in victims of rape, prostitutes, unmarried mothers, and other women snubbed by society at the time, and marks one of the earliest forms of women’s refuges.

In 1974, this distinctly gothic building, with its stark, pointed dormers, steeply pitched roofs, and conical towers, featured in John Betjeman’s A Passion for Churches (1974).

Woodyer was approached as architect for his skill in successfully combining asylum and convent which required both integration and separation - something he first demonstrated at his House of Mercy at Clewer in Windsor (1854-1858).

In return for their board and lodging the women would carry out domestic chores and ‘the stronger and more intelligent ones’ would work in the laundry.

After Ditchingham, Woodyer went on to build several other Houses of Mercy, all of which are now listed except Great Maplestead, in Essex, which was tragically demolished in the 60s.

In 2019 the convent left the premises handing it over to WITH, a religious community for 10 – 25-year-olds.

24/03/2022