What starts a collector on a journey of discovery? Can I call this a collection
as I only have two items? It is very Catholic and I am now Church of England
although my childhood was Methodist a religion still dear to my heart. I do
have the family tales of my maternal Grandmother and Great Mother being
raised in Catholic Convents in Portland Oregon as both their mother’s died in
childbirth (history repeats itself) and both fathers from the two generations
were ranchers in the wilds of Eastern Oregon in the 19th century. It was not
suitable for a man to raise a daughter alone but the girls would have returned
for summers to the ranch and their aunts, uncles and fathers.

It is this family link that made me interested in a box of a ‘nun’s cell’ that
Margaret Towner sold me many years ago. It is a early 20thc card box
mounted on a card base made of card, paper with a glass front and one glass
window at the side. It is 6”x6”x6”. The cardboard container is then covered
with post cards of Oaklands Convent. Looking through the front you see a nun
in a black habit, in fact it is an actual photo of the nun. She has a rosary in her
hands and is no doubt praying. The room is simply furnished with cardboard
furniture a bed table with jug and basin, a small worship piece of furniture
where she would pray, a table, a chair all made of card and a card bed with
covers and pillow made of cloth. The window has a fabric curtain. There is a
gold paper cross on the wall, a small cross near the head of the bed with a
tiny paper bowl (for holy water?), a cut-out picture of the Virgin Mary and
written on the wall, ‘Ce qui n’est pas eternel n’est rien’ (‘what is not eternal is
nothing’). Over the small table with two tiny books on it is ‘Christ est ma vie’
(‘Christ is my life’). Between the 18th century into the 20th century nuns
created these cells and then gave them to their families or their benefactors to
show what their religious life was like.
I then started the detective work as one postcard had ‘Oaklands Convent
Chudleigh’ on it. Oaklands was an Ursuline Convent. In August 1907 the
house was sold to the Ursulines, an order founded in Brescia Italy for the
education of girls and the care of the sick. This order of French nuns had a
monastery in Carhaix Finistere but under the 1905 French law separating
Church and State they were expelled and took the order to this new convent
in England in 1907. A school was established and in the 1911 census a total
of 48 rooms were occupied by 92 people. 44 French nuns, 41 female
students, 3 English and 2 French female visitors AND! A French male errand
boy of 17 years of age. HMMMM maybe not a good idea! Who am I to judge?
Rev. Father Andre Rolland was head of the convent until his death in 1916
when the head of the convent was Rev. Mother Marie Raphael. The convent
closed in 1922. The nuns are buried in the local cemetery so my nun must be
there. Barbara, Sonja and I are going to Totness after 200 Years for a few
days so maybe a detour to Chudleigh which is between Newton Abbott and
Exeter and we can scatter some flowers on the graves of these forgotten
French nuns. Oaklands was sold and was renamed Westwoods and is now a
private residence.
At one of the Chartres auctions the club used to attend I bought a second box,
this one earlier 19th century, all wood with an Ursuline nun in prayer. This nun
is a bisque head doll and all the furniture is wood, a much more sophisticated
object. Perhaps it was a wealthier convent. I’ve found a site with a history of
these cells obviously only made in France. There is a collection of the Tresors
de Ferveur at Chatillon-Coligny Musee du Hieron. Perhaps Samy Odin can
tell us more about this collection.