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Saturday, June 10, 2006

The Bar Convent - York

We left early to catch the train at 7:49 am to York from Newcastle. We arrived in York just before 9:00 am and decided to have a full English Breakfast at the cafe inside "The Bar Convent - York".

Rob at the Bar Convent Cafe
We need to explain that "Bar" in York means "Gate" and this is the oldest living convent in England founded in 1686, at that time there was persecution for Catholics in England.


The Bar Convent - York
Originally uploaded by MercyWatch.
This Convent is now also a Museum of Church History and Heritage. A community of the "Congregation of Jesus" still lives and works at the Bar Convent. They also have a 17 bed Guesthouse and a beautiful cafe. The Bar Convent is near the Mickelgate Bar.

The buildings are Georgian and the community set up a boarding and day school for Catholic girls. They ran the school for 299 years before handing it over to the diocese in 1985. There is a beautiful chapel totally concealed from the outside of the buildings. As you walk through the entrance, there was an open courtyard, which is now a beautiful spacious entrance hall with a glass roof.

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