COMMUNITY OF ST PETER, KILBURN, WOKING AND ELSEWHERE: RECORDS

The collection includes records relating to both the Sisters' devotional life and to the care homes which they ran. Journals kept by each of the Community's houses record brief details of day-to-day activities of the Sisters and services held. Whilst much of the detail is mundane, merely recording the times of services held or the state of the weather, occasionally outside events impinge on the daily routine. An entry in the Journal for St Peter's Ouvroir for 15 August 1914 records: 'Sister Margaretta has been extra busy all the week printing books of prayers for the war. A large packet of them was taken up to the Mother at the Home this evening'.

The early Kilburn journals make some references to patients and nursing activities but the rest of the journals are restricted to the Sisters' activities, only occasionally mentioning activities enjoyed by patients, eg visits to the chapel or a film show. Brief patient records are contained in the patient registers kept by the various homes.

A detailed summary of the main series of records is below:

7805/1/ GENERAL ADMINISTRATION RECORDS 1861-2003
These records relate to the whole of the Community of St Peter's rather than to specific houses.

7805/1/ Constitution and Statutes 1861-1960
The original statutes of 1861, approved by the Bishop of London, were revised and enlarged in 1872. The statutes were subsequently repealed and new statutes approved in 1889, 1904 and 1960.

7805/1/ Early Community minute books 1861-1869
These minutes record significant events, special services, Bishop's visits, admission of associates etc. For minutes 1862-1864 see 7805/1/1.

7805/1/ Meetings of the Council of St Peter's Home 1875-1995
This is the governing body of the Community and usually meets twice a year. It deals with all major financial matters and the upkeep and improvement of the various houses owned or rented by the Community.

7805/1/ Annual accounts 1886-1967
7805/1/12-14 contain printed annual accounts for all the Sisterhood's establishments during the time of their existence. They cover the following homes: St Peter's Home, Kilburn; St Peter's Memorial Home, Woking; Ormesby House, Cottage

7805/1/ Other financial records 1918-1953

7805/1/ General Chapter and Consultative Chapter/Council (or Select Chapter) minutes 1869-2003
The General Chapter was the meeting of the Professed Sisters and met at least once a year, usually more often. It was empowered to make any alterations in the Rules or Regulations, as allowed by the Statutes and agreed by the Warden. The minutes record the discussion and voting on matters concerning the running of the Convent, particularly in relation to the conduct of the Sisters and services held. The Select Chapter, or Consultative Council or Chapter, consisted of the Warden, Superior, Assistant Superior, Mistress of Novices and five Choir Sisters who acted as a small consultative body.

7805/1/ Chapter decisions 1927-2002
These volumes give the decisions made after discussion and voting at General Chapter meetings. Numbers of votes for and against each item are recorded. Several copies were made, to be used in the various Houses. The copy preserved here (7805/1/26) was that made for the Assistant Superior.

7805/1/ Registers of Sisters 1861-c.1967

7805/1/ Reverend Mother's books and papers 1873-1947

7805/1/ Reverend Mother's letter books 1960-1973
These are registers of letters sent, recording date, to whom sent and subject. Subjects relate to Convent matters and to administration of the Home at Woking.

7805/1/ The Reverend Mother's weekly letters 1977-1998
These are typescript weekly 'newsletters' to all the Sisters in the Community from the Reverend Mother concerning the activities of the Sisters within the Community.

7805/1/ Assistant Superior's Record Books 1889-1969
These ms volumes, arranged in date order, record events, business meetings, condition of the fabric of the buildings, the movements of the Sisters outside the House etc. Apparently written at Kilburn until Aug 1944 and thereafter at Woking, many matters relate to Kilburn but others concern Houses elsewhere. Notes of communications with Korea are made in red.

7805/1/ Other Community books 1902-1906

7805/1/ Retreats 1870-1966

7805/1/ Correspondence with Korea (1891-1946)
See also 7805/1/47-54 and 7805/12/1-2. For photographs of Korean Sisters see 7805/10/-.

7805/2/ ST PETER'S HOME FOR INCURABLES, 48 BROMPTON SQUARE, LONDON 1867-1869
This home was run from 1867 until 1869 when it moved to Mortimer Road, Kilburn.

7805/2/ Patient register 1867-1869

7805/3/ ST PETER'S HOME (FROM 1933 KNOWN AS ST PETER'S CONVENT), MORTIMER ROAD, KILBURN 1874-1953
Opened in 1869, this was the Mother House of the Community until bomb damage in 1944 forced the removal of the Sisters to Woking. For photographs see 7805/10/-.

7805/3/ Chapel registers 1894-1940

7805/3/ Financial records 1885-1897
See also 7805/1/12-14.

7805/3/ Cemetery book and correspondence 1873-1938

7805/3/ Journals 1875-1941
These volumes record brief details of day-to-day activities of the Sisters and services held. Early journals contain very brief references to nursing and care of patients but later ones do not. For Kilburn journal, 1941-1944, see 7805/6/12.

7805/3/ Patient registers 1924-1939
These include name, address, occupation, disease, next of kin, religious denomination, ward sent to, where admitted from, where sent to on discharge, and 'Further remarks' on whether they were a satisfactory patient. Arranged in order of date of admission. No indexes.

7805/4/ ST MICHAEL'S HOME, AXBRIDGE, SOMERSET 1882-1968
Opened in 1878 as a home for tuberculosis patients and run but not financed by the Sisters, the home became St Michael's Cheshire Home in 1969. For photographs see 7805/10/-.

7805/4/ Journals 1882-1968

7805/5/ ST PETER'S GRANGE, ST LEONARDS ON SEA, SUSSEX 1897-1961
Opened in 1897 as a convalescent home and rest home, the home closed in 1961. For photographs see 7805/10/-.

7805/5/ Journals 1897-1961

7805/6/ ST PETER'S MEMORIAL HOME (FROM 1944, ST PETER'S CONVENT), MAYBURY HILL, WOKING 1883-2004
The Memorial Home was opened in 1885 and, from 1944, after the evacuation of the Sisters from Kilburn, became the Mother House of the Community. The Convent closed in 2005. For photographs see 7805/10/-.

7805/6/ Chapel registers 1886-2004
These are registers for the Convent Chapel.

7805/6/ Financial records 1886-1939
See also 7805/1/12-14.

7805/6/ Journals (St Peter's Memorial Home) 1895-1948

7805/6/ Journals (St Peter's Convent) 1941-2003

7805/6/ Special services 1883-2002

7805/6/ Patient registers 1885-1961
These, in most cases, include name, address, occupation, disease, next of kin, religious denomination, ward sent to, where admitted from, where sent to on discharge, and 'Further remarks' on whether they were a satisfactory patient. The first two registers give details about the home background of patients. Arranged in order of date of admission. Not indexed, except where specified.

7805/6/ The Sisters' Infirmary 1927-1960
Opened at Woking in 1927.
7805/6/ St Columba's Retreat House 1967-2000
Built 1968 in the grounds of St Peter's Convent, Woking.

7805/7/ ST PETER'S OUVROIR, HENDON 1913-1957
Opened in 1904, the house finally closed in August 1957, as it was proving too expensive to run. It was the last of the Sisterhood's London houses. The property was subsequently sold and demolished. For photographs see 7805/10/-.

7805/7/ Journals 1913-1957

7805/7/ Residents' register 1904-1957

7805/8/ ST PETER-IN-THE-PINES, WOKING 1944-1970
This was purchased in 1934 and adjoined the Convent grounds in Woking. Originally it was a home for invalid ladies and later a guest house, needlework department and altar bread bakery. For photographs see 7805/10/-.

7805/8/ Journals 1944-1970

7805/9/ THE SMILES HOME FOR INVALID LADIES, 'GLENNOE', MAYBURY HILL, WOKING (FORMERLY ST PETER'S HARBOUR, KILBURN) 1923-1976
The journals begin just before the move to Woking in 1923 from Greville Place, Kilburn, where the home was known as St Peter's Harbour. The Home was handed over to the care of 'The Friends of the Elderly' in March 1974. For photographs see 7805/10/-.

7805/9/ Journals 1923-1974

7805/9/ Patient registers 1927-1973
Dates are those of admission.

7805/9/ Peterport, Lavender Road, Woking 1975-1976
The property, adjoining the Smiles Home, was formerly 'Alpine Cottage' and was bought by the Sisters in 1923. The house was originally used to house the Chaplain of the Smiles Home. It was later extended and used for nurses' accommodation etc.

7805/10/ PHOTOGRAPH ALBUMS c.1870-2001
Albums 7805/10/1-2 and 4 were apparently compiled over a number of years and have additional typescript notes added in the 1980s regarding the subjects covered. Albums 7805/10/3, 5-14 and 25 were compiled, with notes, in the 1980s, but contain earlier photographs. The rest appear to have been compiled at the time of the events contained within them. A typescript name index to individuals shown in albums 7805/10/1-7, 9-11 and 25 is contained in 7805/10/3. The title of each album is given, with a brief description of the content where necessary. The approximate date of the photographs is given rather than the date of compilation of the album.

7805/10/ Photographs of Korea 1889-2001
Includes photographs of the Sisters in Korea; the Mission House, Seoul; St Peter's Hospital, Seoul; St Peter's Orphanage, Su Won, and Society of the Holy Cross, Korea. Also includes 2 watercolour paintings of Fusan and Chemulpo harbour

7805/11/ HISTORIES OF THE COMMUNITY [c.1869]-1994

7805/12/ OTHER PUBLICATIONS 1880-2011

The Anglican Sisterhood of St Peter was founded in 1861 by Rosamira and Benjamin Lancaster. Benjamin was a wealthy merchant and a Governor of St George's Hospital, London. Concerned about patients discharged from the hospital who needed some form of convalescent care, he, with his wife, Rosamira, who combined her concern for the sick with a great interest in the life and work of religious communities, decided to devote a large part of their wealth to the foundation of a religious community devoted to nursing.

The Sisterhood's first house was at 27 Brompton Square, London, where two Sisters cared for twelve convalescent patients. In January 1867 a home for incurables was opened at 48 Brompton Square. Owing to pressures on space, in 1869 the Sisterhood moved to St Peter's Home, Mortimer Road, Kilburn, which became the mother house until 1944.

From an early date, in addition to nursing, the Sisters undertook the training of young girls for service. They were trained in housework and cooking and then either remained with the Sisterhood or took up employment in other institutions or private houses. Such trainees were known as 'Girls' or 'Industrials'. Following the success of the home at Kilburn and the perceived need for care homes, further establishments were opened elsewhere at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries.

St Michael's Home, Axbridge, Somerset, a home for 24 tuberculosis patients, was opened in 1878. It was built by Matilda Blanche Gibbs, wife of William Gibbs, a wealthy merchant of Tyntesfield, Wraxall, Somerset, and run by the Sisters. The home was for the poor who were to be treated free of charge. The home was extended in 1882 from which date 50 patients could be accommodated. In 1969 it became St Michael's Cheshire Home.

The largest of the branch houses was established at Woking. Land at Maybury Hill, Woking, was purchased by Mrs Gibbs towards the end of the nineteenth century and given to the Sisters, with a view to the opening of a long-term care-home. Funds were provided by Benjamin Lancaster for the building of a Home for Incurables. The foundation stone was laid in October 1883 and the Home was officially opened on 20th October 1885. It was called 'St Peter's Memorial Home', in memory of Rosamira Lancaster who had died in 1874. The Home initially had accommodation for 60 patients but a further wing with extra rooms and two more wards was added in 1892. After the evacuation of the Sisters from Kilburn in 1944, following bomb damage, Woking became the mother house and became known as 'St Peter's Convent'.

St Peter's Grange, St Leonards on Sea, Sussex, was opened in 1897, as a convalescent home and rest home for the Sisters, a successor to 'Ormsby House', in Littlehampton. A new wing provided accommodation for 'business girls' and others to have an inexpensive holiday. Also at St Leonards was St Peter's Holiday House, at 30 Carisbrooke Road, which provided holidays for poor London children.

In 1902 St Peter's Harbour, a home for aged women, was opened in Greville Place, Mortimer Road, Kilburn, the former home of Benjamin Lancaster. The Home was a continuation of the work begun in 1898 when the Community undertook the supervision of a Home for Aged Women opened by Miss Elizabeth Anna Cuff in 1881.

St Peter's House of Rest at Woolverstone, Suffolk, was opened in 1902. Built and supported by Charles Berners of Woolverstone Hall, it was designed for the Sisters by Edwin Lutyens but was loaned to the government in 1915 for the duration of World War I. Berners died in 1919 without having made provision for the return of the Home to the Sisters.

St Peter's Ouvroir, Hendon, a home for delicate or crippled women where they could undertake such work as was within their capabilities, was opened in 1904. It was set up in the former 'Brent Lodge', a large country house bought by the Sisters for the purpose in 1903.

The Smiles Home for Invalid Ladies at 'Glennoe', Maybury Hill, Woking, was opened in 1923. The house had been bequeathed to the Sisters by Clement Locke Smiles (d.1922), with the intention that such a home should be set up there. The first residents were ladies moved from St Peter's Harbour, Kilburn. The Home was handed over to the care of 'The Friends of the Elderly' in March 1974.

Various other properties were acquired by the Sisters, by gift or lease, in Hoxton, Golden Lane and Tabard Street, London, at Caversham, Berkshire, at Ipswich and Lowestoft, Suffolk, and in Portsmouth, Hampshire. These were run as mission houses and rest homes. Details of the acquisition of some of these may be found in -/1/32.

The Sisters were also involved in overseas mission in Korea. At the request of Bishop Charles Corfe, Anglican Bishop of Korea and Manchuria, five Sisters were sent to the Anglican Mission in Seoul in 1892. They were involved in running an orphanage in Seoul (which moved to Sou Won in 1913) and in nursing and evangelism. A convent for Korean women, the Society of the Holy Cross, was opened in 1925. The St Peter's Sisters' presence in Korea was maintained until 1941 when they were evacuated, first to Canada and then back to England. Following the Korean War, contact was re-established. Two Korean Sisters visited Woking in 1976-1977 and the Reverend Mother visited Korea in 1990.

By the 1980s, with the phasing-out of convalescent homes under the National Health Service and a reduction in numbers entering the Sisterhood, it had become clear that change was inevitable. Some homes had already closed and it was felt that the buildings in Woking were too large and too expensive to be viable. It was decided to sell part of the site, including the Convent buildings, and use the proceeds to build a new, smaller Convent and apply the remainder to charitable trusts. In 1989 the Sisters moved into the new, purpose-built Convent buildings adjacent to the old Convent. The former Convent buildings were converted into luxury flats.

Dwindling numbers of Sisters finally brought about the closure of the Convent in 2005. The retreat house, St Columba's, continues to be run as part of the charitable works of the Sisterhood.

General administration records which relate to the Sisterhood as a whole and to the administration of all the establishments have been grouped together in section 7805/1/-. Records relating to specific homes and houses have been arranged in separate sections under the names of the various houses, in order of the date of foundation of the house. The photograph albums, some of which contain photographs of several houses, have been grouped together in section 7805/10/-.

Patient records are closed for 100 years. The volume of Sisters' particulars (7805/1/30) is closed for 75 years from the last entry.

Deposited by the Community of St Peter, Woking, per Miss Elizabeth Cuthbert, in July 2005. 7805/12/7 was deposited in August 2011.

An item level description of the archive is available on the Surrey History Centre online catalogue

For photographs of The Smiles Home for Invalid Ladies, which opened in 1923, at 'Glennoe' on the corner of Maybury Hill and Lavender Road, Woking, see 7095/Box 4 and 9524/7/1/-.

In St Peter's Shadow, by Elizabeth Cuthbert (St Peter's Community, Woking, 1994).