ST MARY'S
THE HISTORY OF THE ESTATE
The original buildings in Rottingdean Place were built in 1912 as the St Mary’s Home for Female Penitents. The Home was run by the nuns of the Community of the Blessed Virgin whose original premises had been in Queen’s Square and Wykeham Terrace in Brighton. In 1974 the Community moved again to Rottingdean village, and a decade later the building they left on the edge of the South Downs was developed into the residential accommodation now known as Rottingdean Place.
Although called Rottingdean Place, for the pedants among you it is actually in Ovingdean Parish!
This month you will discover how a fine building in Rottingdean was built with money earnt by a German family who supplied hats to the German Kings of England!
The Wagners were a wealthy Coburg family of hat makers. Fortunately, the family arrived in London at the same time as England found itself with three Hanoverian kings in succession. His family became hatters to George I, II and III, which meant of course supplying the whole army too. This meant that their business at 93 Pall Mall was most successful.
Known to the Duke of Wellington through tutoring his sons, H M Wagner (1792 -1870) was appointed Vicar of Brighton by The Duke in 1824. He built several churches from his own funds, including St Paul’s, West Street, where his son Arthur (1834 -1902) would start his career.
Picture 1 Arthur Wagner
Arthur established an Anglican order of nuns known as The Community of The Blessed Virgin Mary in 1855 to further the work of St Paul’s. Funded solely by Wagner, they eventually ran St Mary’s Home for Female penitents in various buildings south of St Nicholas’ Church at Queens Square and Wykeham Terrace, carrying out extensive social work among young single women.
Picture 2 Wykeham Terrace
Wagner eventually created a home for the sisters at Buxted in 1878 but it was not until 1912 that Rottingdean Place was built for them. The architect was Frank Cawthorn who, in partnership with Edmund Scott (1828 -1895) had designed St Bartholomew’s Church, Brighton for Wagner.
Picture 3 -5 Old convent (view, ploughing, and chapel interior)
By 1974 only fifty sisters remained. The Convent closed in 1976, by which time there were only seventeen sisters, of whom eleven formed the Convent of St Mary’s at 30-32 Newlands Road. Only six remained when the home became The Newlands Court Hotel in 1989. Since 1998 that hotel has been Rottingdean Nursing Home.
Meanwhile, at Rottingdean Place, a language school was established for a few years until 1981 and in 1982-3 The Church of Scientology established a Religious Education College. The building then remained vacant until conversion to residential homes with the first residents arriving in 1987. The estate offers not only apartments and homes within its beautiful grounds but also an indoor swimming pool, gym and golf driving range.
There are even beehives which produce honey and I can personally confirm it is delicious!
Picture 6 Honey
