IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Regent Road, ALTRINCHAM, WA14 1RT

Like its fellow boys' Catholic grammar school in Hale Barns, Loreto sets high standards, both morally and academically: it is a specialist in Mathematics. Over the years, teaching staff have become secular and the nuns have taken up residence in separate quarters nearby. The school motto - barely visible on the crest - is "Cruci dum spire fido" i.e. "While I live, I trust in the Cross" - very apt for the pupils of a Christian Faith school.

Ahead, in the photo, is the original building that housed both nuns and pupils in the early days. As time went by, the school expanded on the site until the Prep. School - which had taken both Catholic girls and boys up to the age of eight - was split off and moved to new premises further down Dunham Road. In the 1950s, boys completing their Preparatory schooling here moved to the likes of St Ambrose, Hale Barns, to continue their education. Several years ago, one of the teaching nuns from that era - Sister John Baptist - reached her 100th birthday, which was celebrated with a Mass at nearby St Vincent's church. Some of her old pupils present were of retirement age!

This house was built by the Countess of the Dunham Estate for her Estate Manager in 1900. Typical Victorian neo-Tudor

Schools in the Altrincham area often occupy former private houses or the land attached to them. Hale and Bowdon have many large mansions that lend themselves to such re-use. In the case of Loreto, here, the premises are purpose built.

Reverses the trend towards minimal religious observance: hundreds attend each of the five weekend services (including many young families) and up to fifty at daily lunchtime mass. Parishioners are also active in local charity work. There is a black & white photograph https://www.francisfrith.com/altrincham/altrincham-st-vincent-s-church-1906_55743 of St Vincent's in the Francis Frith Collection - from around 1906, when it was founded - showing the building standing in isolation with no trees and no houses to the south.

Situated between Groby Road and Bentinck Road.

From Groby Road

Devotional statue of the Blessed Virgin in the grounds of St Vincent's church, Groby Road, Altrincham.

Loreto Convent Prep School has closed

Interior of St Vincent's Catholic Church, Altrincham, established here in 1906. Although church attendances are said to be falling, nationwide, this is not so at St Vincent's. Daytime Mass (12.15) has around fifty parishioners and visitors every day of the week; and on a Sunday hundreds come to one or other of the four masses available, many being young families. In recent times, one of their priests was chosen to train in Rome for the Vatican diplomatic service.