St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School
The present school in Headley Way
The original St Joseph's Roman Catholic Primary School in St Clement's (1869–1968)
St Ignatius's RC School (1869–c.1902)
St Aloysius Mixed Infant and Girls (c.1902–1932)
St Joseph's RC Primary School (1932–1968)
This school opened in 1869 for 18 children in Leslie House, the presbytery (priest's house) of St Ignatius's Roman Catholic Chapel next to the Port Mahon pub in St Clement’s Street. It was originally named St Ignatius' Roman Catholic School after the chapel next door.
Following the opening of St Aloysius' Church on the Woodstock Road in 1875, St Ignatius' Chapel was only used on Sundays, and St Ignatius' School moved into the chapel itself.
In 1892 a small boys' school that had opened next to St Aloysius Church in the Woodstock Road in 1882 was enlarged to accommodate 80 boys. Hence from 1894 St Ignatius' School in St Clement's was for girls and infants only, and in about 1902 it was renamed St Aloysius Mixed Infants and Girls.
The inside of the chapel photographed by Henry Taunt in 1906, when it was the school
In 1909 the Holy Child Sisters who had been living in Leslie House moved to Cherwell Edge. Leslie House was demolished, and a new school was built on its site. This had three classrooms for boys and girls, but the infants continued to be taught in the old chapel. The photograph below shows the 1909 school on the left and the 1795 chapel on the right.
In 1911 Ss Edmund & Frideswide Roman Catholic Church (Greyfriars) was opened in the Iffley Road, and so the chapel was no longer needed for worship and was solely part of the school.
In 1932 both St Aloysius Mixed Infant and Girls School on this site and St Aloysius Boys' School on the Woodstock Road both became mixed. This school in St Clement's was renamed St Joseph’s Roman Catholic School, and until St Edmund Campion School opened in 1958 it also had a senior department that also took the older children from St Aloysius’s School.
St Joseph's Roman Catholic School remained here in St Clement's until 1968.
St Joseph's Roman Catholic School in Headley Way (1968–present)
By the 1960s the school had become dilapidated and old-fashioned: there were no indoor toilets, the playground was so small that the 260 children had to take turns to play, and the traffic in St Clement’s was a problem.
In September 1968 St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School opened in the present buildings in Headley Way, Headington, with seven classrooms, a swimming pool, and a hall/gymnasium. It cost £85,000.
In 1975, when Oxford adopted a three-tier system of education, it became St Joseph’s Roman Catholic First School for children aged 5 to 9.
When Oxford reverted to a two-tier system of education in September 2003, it once again became St Joseph’s Roman Catholic Primary School for children aged 5 to 11.
Sister Marie Ann was the last nun to teach at St Joseph's School (in both St Clement's and Headley Way). She retired in July 2010 after teaching there for 39 years: news article. Some of the information above was obtained from the following:
- Sister Marie Ann: Presentation about St Ignatius’, St Aloysius’, and St Joseph’s Schools
- D. A. Bischoff, St Aloysius, Oxford: The first eighty years (1955)
Further information on St Ignatius' Chapel (1793–1911)
St Ignatius' Chapel (above) was built in 1793 next door to the Port Mahon pub in St Clement's Street by Father Charles Leslie, a Jesuit priest from Waterperry, and was named after St Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit order.
At that time there were only about sixty Roman Catholics in Oxford and anti-Catholic sentiment at that time was still strong. Hence Father Charles built the chapel well back from the road in the garden of his house. It is probably not a coincidence that on 19 October 1793 (when the chapel was being built) an advertisement in Jackson's Oxford Journal for a new edition of Fox's Complete Book of Martyrs began with this preamble:
At this Juncture, when the ROMAN CATHOLIC INTEREST is so much gaining Ground in this Country, when FRENCH PRIESTS and their EMISSARIES swarm in different Parts of the Kingdom, when Romish Chapels and Conventicles are connived at, and when such Countenance is given to ROMAN CATHOLICS it is the indispensible Duty of all true PROTESTANTS to enquire into the destructive Principles of that abominable Persuasion...
On Sundays, two University Proctors would stand outside on the look-out for undergraduates for whom the chapel was out of bounds: it ws only in 1854 that the requirement to subscribe to the Church of England at both matriculation and graduation was removed.
Cardinal (now Saint) John Henry Newman attended his first public mass here in 1845, and until 1875 when St Aloysius' Church was built it was the only Roman Catholic Church in Oxford.
The priest of the chapel refused to give any information for the Oxford religious census of 1851, but an anonymous person who worshipped there said that there were about 70 or 80 sittings, half free, with the general congregation attending being about fifty.
It was described as follows in Gardner's Directory of 1852:
The Catholic Chapel, situated in the High-street, St. Clements is an unpretending edifice of stone, dedicated under the invocation of St. Ignatius, C. It was built in 1793, by the Rev. Charles Leslie: the entrance is at the west end, and the edifice consists chiefly of a nave and chancel. On each side of the nave are three large windows. A space at the eastern extremity is raised by a step, upon which is fixed the communion rail, and an open arch springing from pilasters conducts to the sanctuary. The altar is of highly polished marble, with the monogram of the name of Jesus, encircled with rays of metal in relief in the centre. It is raised by a pace, and upon it rests the tabernacle, surmounted by a crucifix. On a super altar are candlesticks and vases for flowers. A Corinthian pillar, on each side, supports a pediment over the altar piece, which is a valuable picture by an ancient master, representing the Entombment of our Lord. Within the sanctuary on either hand is a door: that on the north side leading into a small sepulchral chapel, and the corresponding one communicating with the sacristy. The Rev. Henry Brigham, S.J. is the present pastor. The Presbytery adjoining the chapel is a large commodious residence.
The chapel, surmounted by a cross, can be seen on the right in the nineteenth-century drawing below. On the left is the Presbytery, which had been completely rebuilt in 1829, but was demolished in 1909 to make way for the new school building. The last Mass was said in the chapel in 1911.
A blue plaque was unveiled on the chapel on 31 July 2018, and the Oxfordshire Blue Plaques website has more information about it here.
The photograph below by Henry Taunt, dating from 1906, shows the side of St Ignatius' Chapel. Historic England has two views of the interior by Henry Taunt of the same date: CC50/00510 and CC50/00509.
The former chapel and school in St Clement's are currently occupied by offices. They are both Grade II listed buildings:
- St Ignatius's Chapel, built in 1793: List Entry No. 1047165
- St Ignatius's School, built in 1905: List Entry No. 110179
