Nuns’ Memorial Criticised
KENT BARKER
The erection of a new memorial to the 46 nuns whose bodies were exhumed from the centre of a St Leonards Housing estate has been criticised over lack of consultation with locals and relatives.
As HIP reported last year, the Mother Agnes Trust which owned the nun’s graveyard, was roundly castigated for its decision to dig up the bodies after it claimed badgers had disturbed the graves in the grounds of the former Holmhurst St Mary convent school.
One former pupil, Dame Joanna Lumley writing exclusively in HIP, said that she was ‘shocked’ to hear that the graveyard had been destroyed, and she felt the exhumations had been conducted ‘furtively and swiftly and irrevocably’ without any consultation with the nuns’ living relatives or with the old girls’ association from the Convent.
Now a memorial has appeared without any notice. Sally Cole, a former convent pupil still living in Hastings said: “I am very disappointed that the Old Girls Association and relatives of the sisters were not given an opportunity to discuss the memorial. After all the upset their actions caused I think it was the least they [the trust] could do”.
The Revd Canon Dr Rob Marshall, a spokesman for the Trust, said “We can confirm that the new memorial to the Sisters of St Mary’s Holmhurst was commissioned by the Mother Agnes Trust. It was made by local firm EB sculpture and we are in ongoing discussions with a local parish to oversee the upkeep of the memorial which we regard as important.” He did not address the question of lack of consultation with relatives or pupils and would not disclose how much the memorial cost.
Local archivist and activist Bob Hart, whose freedom of information request first disclosed that the exhumations had taken place without notice or warning, said he was surprised there was no announcement or service when the new memorial was erected. He felt that the stone monument to the nuns was ‘acceptable’ but said “I personally consider that the simple crosses were a better memory of who was laid to rest.” And he remains critical of Hastings Borough Council’s role in allowing and overseeing the original exhumations.
The nun’s graveyard was in the middle of an extensive Southern Housing building site. Much of the development land is understood to have been sold to them by the Mother Agnes Trust, although the graveyard plot was retained by the church charity.
There was considerable criticism of the original decision to carry out the exhumations, with wildlife groups arguing that the badgers could and should have been given exit routes and that it would have been possible to have protected the graves from them.
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