The Barrow upon Soar Catholic School

The Catholic church of St Alban was built in Barrow in 1839 by Irish navies who were building the railway. This was only ten years after Catholic Emancipation which had finally allowed Catholics to play a full part in civic life. The church and congregation were looked after by the Rosminian priests from St Mary’s in Loughborough. Some of them only stayed a short time but in 1971 Fr Alfred Bowen (Rosminian) was appointed and he stayed until 1877

He started the school in the chapel; it was used as a school during the week and a place of worship on Sundays. The first teacher was Miss Wallace and the next Miss Sullivan who became Mrs Lockwood. Fr Bowen’s days are remembered for the parties he got up for the children in the orchard.

This school was often the first choice of parents because they only had to pay 2d a week, rather than the 3d required at the other two schools. There are no records from the Catholic school but in the records of both the other schools there are fairly frequent references to children being moved between the schools

After about 1880 the curate from Loughborough stopped saying Mass in Barrow and the parish was looked after by Diocesan clergy.

Fr Edward Baste was the first of these and he soon set to work to make alterations. The school had been temporarily closed; he reopened it making St Alban’s school during the week and a place of worship on Sundays.  

A further innovation was the bringing of the “Blue Sisters” (the Little Company of Mary) to Quorn. Mr. France, a Catholic manufacturer with business in Leicester, but living in Barrow in the house at the bend in the hill near the Railway Bridge called Forest View gave the sisters, as a convent, a house in Station Rd. Quorn; the sisters taught the children of the village.

After Fr. Baste followed Fr. T Nolan (1881) and Fr.  F Turpey (1882) Fr. Matthew O’Reilly, residing in Quorn like his predecessors, took charge in 1883 and   admitted to friends that it was uphill work. He stayed until 1886 or 1887. Fr O’Reilly on leaving this neighbourhood was appointed to Whitwick

When the Blue Sisters withdrew from Quorn Fr O’Reilly’s successor Fr P J Capron lived in Barrow.  A little later there was no resident priest and the parish was served from Nottingham Cathedral.

There are no references to the Catholic school in the logbooks of the other schools after Feb17th 1888.