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An interactive play on St Francis Heritage

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It was in the Long Acre / Covent Garden area of london that Margaret Murphy first started her work and join the newly founded “Congregation of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God”. It was here that she took the name Sister Francis in 1870. This was a particularly poor area of London at the time. The address of the convent was Number 2 Castle Street, Long Acre.

In 1888 Mother Frances Murphy began a new ministry, now known as "Franciscan Sisters Minoress", in London committed to the helping the destitute. Her work included visiting Homes, nursing, religeous instruction and working in an orphanage.

The Voice over on this projection clip is from an interview with Sister Francis who currently lives in Tower House.

She had researched and written about Mother Francis many years ago and was reminiscing about the things she had found out.

It was in 1897 when Mother Francis first went Nottingham after being invited by Bishop Bagshawe Some years earlier.

It is written* that she did not travel to Nottingham Immediately as she had plans to put into operation - possibly in London where she was leaving.

*in "The life and work of mother Francis Murphy".

The Franciscan Sisters Minoress first arrived in Melton Mowbray in 1900 while remaining within the Diocese of Nottingham.

They initially moved into a small house on Sherrard Street and it soon became apparent that this was too small for the sisters, so they rented the premises at 9 Thorp End.

The Sisters then rented The Manor House in Melton and this was called "St Joseph's Franciscan Convent".

It was advertised as a high-class boarding school for young ladies Costing £20 per year.

It was in this building that our Sisters, then known as Franciscan missionary sisters OSF, conducted a school for day pupils and borders from 1901, until they purchased Tower House on Dalby Road in 1903.

Sister Rose Bourke was in charge of the school and sisters Mildred Brooksbank, Angela Shryne, Ignatius McAuley, Joseph Howlett and Genevieve power were the teaching staff.

Mother Francis and the sisters obtained the keys to Tower house in Melton in 1903. With space inside to accommodate boarders and 4 acres of pasture land outside, They developed a small efficient farm in order to help support their work.

Tower House is "The Mother house" of the congregation. St Clare's Convent at Clay Cross, Derbyshire is the House of Formation for the Congregation. There are also Franciscan Convents in Glasggow (nursing apostolate), St Anthony's Convent in Dublin, and in Saint Theresa's Convent in South Africa where the sisters reach out to the poor in ways that include nursing, child care and housing for those in need.

Mother Francis Murphy sas born in County Wexford Ireland on the 29th of March 1843 and died at early the morning of Christmas Eve 1927 in Melton Mowbray. She was 85 years old and had been a religious for 57 years.

The funeral service was a simple one held at the convent chapel on Dolby road and she was laid to rest at the parish church of Saint John the Baptist at Thorpe end in beside the church.

On 3 September 1939, The famous broadcast of the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain declared war on Germany.

The message was delivered shortly after 11am on 3 September 1939 and the Head of the congregation, Mother Louisa Moyles would have had to start planning to "do their bit".

During Summer of 1939, nearly 1.5 million were evacuated from English cities.

Participation varied from city to city and from an initial list of 60,000 Sheffield planned for 30,000 children to be evacuated. Many of those, along with more from Birmingham, poured into the country towns and villages, Melton being no exception.

Children Left their homes with an identification label around their necks, a gas mask in a cardboard box and a few personal belongings.

During 1946, Melton Airfield became a Camp for displaced Polish Persons. In 1947 it was handed over to the Polish Air Corps and displaced civilians started living in the large Nissen huts - cold and impoersonal tin shelters.

The Nissin Huts on Melton Airfield image thanks to Beata Hanks (Nikel)

The old Army hut was brought onto the Tower House site to act as a new Classrom for the growing school. It had several separate rooms in it and usually had Juniors (what are now year 5 and 6).

to the huts was a small school yars and either side of the yard were two brick buildings: The toilets and the Milk room where the puils would queue up outside to get their mid-morning Milk.

Paddy The Dog

Paddy was a school dog that was loved by many of the teachers and pupils. Paddy helped Maia walk safely to the station when the sisters were concerned about her safety on her journey.