The Priory of Our Lady of Good Counsel is a Roman Catholic priory of canonesses regular at Kingston near Lewes, West Sussex, England. Its members formerly taught girls at an independent school in Haywards Heath, then from 1978 to 2008 lived at a Monastery and Centre for Pastoral Work at Sayers Common, West Sussex.
The Priory's former buildings at Haywards Heath, built in 1886 and designed by Edward Goldie, are Grade II listed and were so designated on 11 December 1987. They have changed little in external appearance since being deconsecrated, but in 2019 they were converted into more than forty apartments, with substantial modernisation of the interiors.
The Priory's former home at Sayers Common is now occupied by a special school called LVS Hassocks. History In 1629, the English monastery of Canonesses Regular of Lateran, at Louvain, sent members to Bruges, then in the Spanish Netherlands, to begin a new house there. Their work was in the field of educating girls, but the French Revolution disrupted it, and they left the city. They were able to return in 1802, and in 1886 sent out a party of English nuns to establish a daughter house at Haywards Heath."Augustine, St. (Canonesses Regular of Lateran)", in The Religious Houses of the United Kingdom: "Nuns of St. Augustine" (London: Burns & Oates, 1887), p. 111
The new Priory was Haywards Heath's first Roman Catholic place of worship since the English Reformation. The foundation stone of the Priory's chapel was laid on 5th May 1890 by John Butt, Bishop of Southwark, who opened the completed chapel on 18 June 1891. It was formally consecrated in 1897 by Cardinal Vaughan, Archbishop of Westminster. It had fittings of oak, and the altar space was divided from the south transept (which was for the use of the public) by an iron screen. The roof had a bell turret and there was a statue of Augustine of Hippo on the chapel's western gable."Our Lady of Good Counsel Chapel (The Priory, Haywards Heath)", Sussex Online Parish Clerks, accessed 25 November 2025 The chapel contained a Martyrs' Shrine, with a stained glass window picturing Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, and Margaret Clitherow.Catherine Sidney Durrant, A Link Between Flemish Mystics and English Martyrs (London: Burns, Oates, and Washbourne, 1925), page x As completed, the whole complex consisted of a large rectangular building, enclosing a quadrangle, with the chapel forming part of it, and various further buildings to the north and east, all attached to each other."R. C. Convent", Ordnance Survey 25" series, Sussex XXVI.11 (revised 1909, published 1910), National Library of Scotland, accessed 25, November 2025
In August 1924, Peter Amigo, Bishop of Southwark, visited Haywards Heath and raised the status of the Priory to that of an independent house, meaning that it would no longer be subsidiary to its mother house in Bruges."Havant", West Sussex Gazette, Thursday 04 September 1924, p. 5
In October 1928, the Priory was visited by Stanley Baldwin, the British prime minister, who was related to one of the sisters."LOOKING BACK Fifty years ago: October 9, 1928", Mid Sussex Times, Thursday 5 October 1978, p. 5
A separate Roman Catholic parish church, St Paul's, was established nearby in 1930.
In October 1978, the Priory moved to Kingsland, a Georgian country house near Sayers Common."Sisters of The Priory of Our Lady of Good Counsel", Mid Sussex Times, Thursday 19 October 1978, p. 2 Most of the contents of its former buildings, including "a large quantity of Victorian and modern pine furniture", were sold at an auction in the Great Hall in November 1978,"Priory of Our Lady of Good Counsel Sussex Square Haywards Heath Sussex Sale by Auction", Mid Sussex Times, Thursday 2 November 1978, p. 38 raising more than £13,000."Buyers pack Priory and pay £13,451 for sale items", Mid Sussex Times, Thursday 23 November 1978, p. 29 The chancel arch crucifix was given to Arundel Cathedral."MOVING The Priory of Our Lady of Good Counsel at Haywards Heath", Littlehampton Gazette, Friday 3 November 1978, p. 8 The chapel organ, built in 1898 by Bishop & Son, was dismantled and later installed in the new chapel at Kingsland."Sussex, West, Haywards Heath, Priory of Our Lady of Good Counsel", National Pipe Organ Register, accessed 25 November 2025
In October 1979, a new purpose-built chapel and retreat buildings at Kingsland were blessed and the new Priory was formally opened as a pastoral centre."An ‘oasis of prayer — and hospitality’", Mid Sussex Times, Friday 26 October 1979, p. 21 In 1980, the new buildings at the Monastery and Centre for Pastoral Work, which included a conical chapel echoing an oast house, and a large new semi-circular range designed by Michael Blee, won a commendation from the Royal Institute of British Architects."Design win", Sussex Express, Friday 15 August 1980, p. 16Simon Carey, "TQ2618: Priory of Our Lady" Geograph, 4 January 2009, accessed 25 November 2025 In July 1986, when the Priory celebrated its centenary, there were 36 sisters, led by the Prioress, Mother Mary Thomas."Centenary celebrations", Mid Sussex Times, Friday 11 July 1986, p. 9
About 2008, the buildings and land of the Priory of Our Lady at Kingsland were sold and are now occupied by a special school called LVS Hassocks."Campus & Facilities", LVS Hassocks, accessed 25 November 2025 The community of the Priory of Our Lady moved to Dove Cottage, Kingston Ridge, Kingston-near-Lewes, where it leads a contemplative life and has a retreat programme."Canonesses Regular of St Augustine Windesheim Congregation", Association of British Contemplatives Directory online, accessed 25 November 2025"Augustinians", John Robert Young, accessed 25 November 2025
The Priory is a charitable organisation and is registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales."PRIORY OF OUR LADY CIO, Charity number: 1200216", Charity Commission for England and Wales, accessed 25 November 2025
Priory School As early as June 1891, the Priory at Haywards Heath was taking in "young lady pupils" to educate, acting as a boarding school."1891 - The Bishop of Southwark opens the new Roman Catholic Chapel at Haywards Heath", Cuckfield Connections, accessed 23 November 2025 This was usually called "the Priory School", and in 1899 was listed as a secondary school for girls.Emily Janes, ed., The Englishwoman's Year Book and Directory for the Year 1899, Volume 1 (London: Adam and Charles Black, 1899), pp. 30–31 A late 19th-century pupil was the writer Daisy Ashford, who was at the school from 1898 to 1899, when she was aged seventeen and eighteen.
The sports played by the girls included croquet."THIS girls’ school, where, as the picture shows, the pupils were encouraged to take up the cut and thrust of croquet", Mid Sussex Times, Friday 2 December 1988, p. 80
In July 1909, a new wing for the use of the school was under construction,"The Priory of Our Lady of Good Counsel", Mid Sussex Times, Tuesday 6 July 1909, p. 5 and in February 1910 it was reported that there had been an increase in the numbers in the school."OUR LADY’S PRIORY, HAYWARDS HEATH. Owing to the increase in the number of young lady pupils attending the School...", Mid Sussex Times, Tuesday 1 February 1910, p. 7
It was reported in 1901 and 1914 that the nuns of the Priory "receive a limited number of young Ladies for education". Pupils were prepared for universities."COLLEGES, CONVENTS, SCHOOLS, &c", The Tablet, Saturday 11 May 1901, p. 40"PRIORY OF OUR LADY OF GOOD COUNSEL, HAYWARDS HEATH, SUSSEX", War Office Times and Naval Review, Sunday 15 November 1914, p. 18: "The Augustinian Canonesses Regular of Lateran (a Branch House of the English Convent, Bruges) receive a limited number of young Ladies for education"
During the First World War, a Belgian girl, Marie-Noële Jourda de Vaux, was sent to the Priory School, as her mother's sister was already there as a nun.
In 1945, Marianne Jebb (born 1923), a grand-daughter of Hilaire Belloc, joined the community."JEBB, Marianne A E I", FreeBMD, accessed 25 November 2025Joseph Pearce, Old Thunder: A Life of Hilaire Belloc (Ignatius Press, 2002), p. 351 An older sister of Dom Philip Jebb, later head of Downside School, she went on to become "a witty, much-loved headmistress" of the Priory School,"Dom Philip Jebb: Monk who became a leading figure in the Benedictine order and was a perceptive counsellor to lay people", The Independent, Wednesday 2 July 2014, accessed 25 November 2025 "Belloc's Grandson, Dom Philip Jebb, RIP", St Austin Review, 2014, accessed 25 November 2025 as Sister Emmanuel Mary Jebb.
The school was still teaching girls in 1971."Priory of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Haywards Heath", Schools 1971 (London: Truman & Knightley, 1971), p. 742
Headmistresses This is an incomplete list 1938–1950: Sister Mary BrigidMarta Maria Lombard, The Daughter of a Colombian Diplomat: A Denied Existence (Troubador Publishing, 2020), pp. 28–30 1968: Sister Emmanuel Mary JebbPhilip Jebb, Religious Education: Drift Or Decision? (London: Longman & Todd, 1968), p. 39
After the departure of the nuns, the Priory School's building at Haywards Heath was converted into offices, conference facilities, and a restaurant.
In November 2007, the former priory appeared in Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares, fronted by Gordon Ramsay. It was then occupied by The Priory Grill, a 100-seat restaurant, but this closed in 2008. A further redevelopment of the complex into 43 one, two, and three bedroom flats was completed in August 2019.
Former Priory School pupils Daisy Ashford, 1898 to 1899"Priory of Our Lady of Good Counsel", Cambridge University Press, accessed 23 November 2025 Marie-Noële Kelly, 1915 to 1918Louis Jebb, "Obituary: Marie Nole Kelly", The Independent, 15 March 1995, archived at archive.orgMarie Noële Kelly, Dawn to Dusk (London: Hutchinson, 1960), pp. 66–68 Charlotte Bingham, 1949 to 1958 "Charlotte Bingham obituary", The Guardian, 19 November 2025, accessed 23 November 2025
Further reading Carmen Mangion, "The Modern Girl and religious life" in Catholic nuns and sisters in a secular age (2020) References