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In 1806, Hodder Place began as a preparatory school and a Jesuit seminary.  After exhaustive research, we are able to claim that St. Mary's Hall, Hodder's lineal descendant, is the oldest surviving school of its kind in the country.  The preparatory school at SMH began after the Second World War in 1946 after the English College, which had spent the war years there, had returned to Rome. SMH then ran alongside Hodder until 1970 when Hodder Place was closed.  The younger boys from Hodder then formed Hodder Playroom at SMH. 

We therefore have a bicentenary and a golden jubilee to celebrate! 

Celebrations began with Mass at the River Hodder celebrated by Fr Adrian Howell SJ, OS and old-Hodderician.  Hodder and SMH had used the very spot over many years for excursions to the cooling waters of the river on hot days and for more extensive visits in the form of overnight camps.  Mass was to be followed by a sumptuous picnic on the Hodder flat, the site of the old Hodder cricket pitch. 

And so the school broke free from its usual timetable of academic lessons and retreated to the river in radiant sunshine to sit by the bubbling waters of the Hodder. 

We could not have wished for a more beautiful setting or for a day better suited to our pilgrimage.  Mass was a wonderful occasion, made more so by Fr Howell's closing words. 

"I never imagined, " Father said, "at the age of seven, eight and nine, when I used to play on this very spot as a boarder at Hodder Place, that I would celebrate here the Mass in honour of the school's bicentenary."

We reached the River Hodder by going down the famous "Thirty-Nine Steps"

A momentary respite.

En route to the river, through the gate into Paradise.

After Mass, we walked back through Paradise with Hodder Place beckoning us.

Our next peregrination ... this time, to our picnic.

Click here to follow us to our picnic.