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Originally built by a General Oliver de Lancey (then MP for Maidstone) in 1799, as Effingham Hill House, the building was later extended in the 19th Century. In 1928 the then owner, a Robert Calburn, a chemicals manufacturer, put the house and part of the land up for sale, with the instruction that it should go to a Roman Catholic institution. The advert was seen by the Mother Superior of Les Dames de l'Instruction Chrétienne in Belgium and it was sold to them, starting the use of the site as a convent. The buildings have been further extended to and added to over the years. Although no longer run by nuns, it remains an independent Catholic girls' school.