My thanks to the friends and many Hollies alumni (pupils and staff) who loaned some of the pictures uploaded to this website. Others are from archive collections (public and private, including the extensive archives of the FCJ, and my own.) If you wish to copy and use any of these images, please credit this website and acknowledge the source as Hollies-fcj
Please note that this site does not host an alumni list or any personal details.
Autumn 1989, in a leafy suburb in Manchester and a fine school building was about to go under the wrecker’s ball. The day the school community had dreaded for so long had arrived. The Hollies FCJ Convent School, which had educated girls in Manchester since 1853, was lost to future generations and now the very buildings were to be destroyed.
So many struggles for survival had been fought and won down the decades but the final battle was over. The FCJ nuns continued their work elsewhere. The school premises in Fielden Park were empty; the last group of girls had left, staff had moved on and it was time to take the final photographs.
This was not the end of the story, for the Past Pupils' Association continued to work on behalf of its members. The Association was founded in 1925 to provide social contact for members, form links between generations of old girls, and help good causes and social work. Honorary President, Margaret Dilger, was instrumental in reviving the Association after the closure of the school in 1985. The Association lasted until 2014.
The Hollies continues to work on in the lives of the women who were privileged to have been educated there, and who carry the memory of the school with them in their work, their homes, and their lives.