In 1904 a group of French nuns arrived in Bedford, having left France as a result of laws passed in 1902 designed to suppress teaching in France by religious orders and confiscating their property, thus making them homeless. These nuns belonged to the Convent of the Daughters of the Holy Ghost. Having settled in Bedford, in 1907 the nuns opened a school in Lansdowne Road which became known as the School of the Convent of the Holy Ghost or, more familiarly, as the Convent School. The school moved to Bromham Road in 1914.

The Convent School had a preparatory department (also admitting boys), called St Mary’s, at 118 Bromham Road (formerly Stamford House, a Bedford Modern School boarding house)

The Convent School closed in 1974 and was replaced by St Bede’s Voluntary Aided RC Middle School, which itself closed in 2006. At this point the nuns removed to Clapham Park to found a retreat and conference centre. The convent put Clapham Park up for sale in 1985, due to the small numbers of women wanting to become nuns and the building then suffered the usual fate of large houses in modern times, division into “luxury flats”.

The site has now been developed as retirement flats, retaining Nos 112-114 as well as the smaller (older) house at 116. No 118 was sold in the 1980s, and became offices of an estate agent. Clapham Park was sold for conversion into apartments in the early 1980s. New houses were built in the grounds, and the main house is now a single dwelling again.

[See https://bedsarchives.bedford.gov.uk/CommunityHistories/Clapham/Clapham-Park.aspx ]