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Austin Friars is an independent day school for boys and girls aged 3-18. The Order of St Augustine established the school in 1951, but since the last friar left in 2005 it has been under lay leadership (school website Link ).
The building has had a number of previous uses associated with the Roman Catholic church. It was constructed by the Order of the Sacred Heart as a girls' convent school, which opened in 1892 but moved to Newcastle in 1903. A charming photo of the girls playing croquet is available at Cumbria Image Bank (search for Saint Annes Hill Convent) Link .
The site was taken over by the Chadwick Memorial Industrial School, a reformatory for boys run by the Community of the Presentation Brothers of Cork, until 1924. It then passed to the Poor Sisters of Nazareth, and was an orphanage for boys (Nazareth House) until 1951. More information can be found on the Children's Homes website Link & Link .
During the First World War, buildings at the school were donated to the Red Cross for treatment of wounded soldiers. This was the Chadwick Auxiliary Hospital - see article by Tullie House Museum Link (Archive Link ) . In May 1915 the hospital received some of those injured in Britain's worst ever railway disaster at Quintinshill NY3169 .