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SOMERSET
ROMAN CATHOLICS IN MINEHEAD
John Trevelyan of Minehead, his wife and servants were excommunicated for recusancy in 1623 as
was Richard Sayer.1 There is no further record of Catholicism2 until the 1890s when a church was
built. The convent of St Louis was established in 1898 in the Butts, now Selbourne Place. They
occupied a house with former malthouse and an adjoining thatched barn where they opened a school
before 1899.3 They built a convent nearby in a similar style to the church with a chapel and a large
laundry; a large new wing was added in 1910. There were 14 French nuns and 24 young English
laundresses in the convent in 1901.4 The convent took in orphans who were educated in the school and
in 1926 opened a second school. Following the closure of the convent in 1998 the building became a
mental health centre.5
The nearby church of the Sacred Heart, Alcombe Road was begun in 1896 to the designs of
the Revd A. J. Scoles of Yeovil who also designed the presbytery the same year and the north aisle,
added in 1900 to increase accommodation to 150 seats.6 Lady Charlotte van Straubenzee gave money
to pay two clergy at the new church, a sum which was paid until 1931.7 By 1910 it comprised nave,
north aisle, apse and organ gallery with finely carved marble high and Lady altars and stained glass
1
T. F. Palmer, Collectanea (Som. Rec. Soc. 43), 79—80, 114.
2
The Mass house recorded in the 18th century near the quay: SHC, DD/L 1/10/35B—C, 1/46/7/58, 1/59/5/18;
is almost certainly the mast house recorded in 1520: SHC, DD/L P28/16/3.
3
SHC, A/BAZ 4/13/15; ibid. tithe award; TNA, ED 33/69; SANHS, glass slide colln.
4
TNA, RG 13/2260; SHC, D/U/m 22/1/373.
5
stlouisconvent.co.uk accessed 24 Feb 2012; above, soc. hist., educ.
6
SHC, D/U/m 22/1/10, 21, 89.
7
SHC, DD/C 234.
Mary Siraut
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Somerset Reference
with biblical scenes.8 It is built of stone with freestone dressing in early Gothic style under a tiled roof
and has an attached priests’ house in Tudor style. A modern flat-roofed extension now obscures the
west end of the church and a hall has been built in the grounds. The church remains open and has two
Sunday services.
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8
TNA, IR 58/82377.
Mary Siraut
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Somerset Reference