Description:St. Joseph’s Convent, Lichfield Road, Stafford. This view is taken from the south-eastern end of the Grade II Listed building which was built around 1810-20 and known as Forebridge Villa.
By 1841 it was the residence of Thomas Boulton, a Stafford Mercer (cloth merchant) and Alderman. In 1861 it was the home of Mathew Lyon who sold the contents in 1863. It was then probably purchased By John Morgan, the Stafford wine merchant and Alderman. On his death in 1905 the Villa was sold by his trustees to a group of exiled French nuns known as the Congregation of St Joseph of Cluny who established a noviciate for English speaking subjects, together with a preparatory school which took in lady boarders. They visited the local poor and sick and visited female inmates of the workhouses and prison.
The convent buildings have been a nursing home for the elderly since around 1974.