NSW history: Mystery of Marrickville’s burial vaults at The Warren

A reclusive order of nuns were part of decades-old rumours about a body buried in the grounds of the grand Inner West mansion called The Warren.

If you live in Marrickville, you will likely know about The Warren. The grand turreted estate sat proudly on the banks of the Cooks River in the second half of the 1800s. You may also know it was built by wool merchant Thomas Holt.

But not many would know that when Holt vacated the mansion and returned to England in 1881, the estate was bought by a group of 14 nuns of the Carmelite order who arrived in Sydney from France in 1884.

The cloistered order was most likely attracted to the estate — named after the rabbits Holt brought in from England with the thought to breed them — as it was remote and had a sandstone wall surrounding it on three sides with the Cooks River forming the fourth boundary.

Unlike other orders, the Carmelite nuns didn’t venture into the community much, they didn’t work as nurses or teachers, they kept to their grounds praying in quiet solitude and were often referred to as “the saintly sisterhood of silent meditation”.

The Warren in Marrickville was home to a reclusive order of nuns. Picture: Inner West Council Archives

This isolation gave rise to many myths which even remain today, says local historian Chrys Meader who was born and bred in Marrickville.

Where the Warren Estate once met the Cooks River, a series of burial vaults carved out of sandstone were built by Holt, who intended it to be his family’s final resting place. But when he left Australia, the vaults remained empty.

Rumours that a nun was buried in one of them abounded and until today were passed on as a rumour. But Meader says this one is actually true, and Inner West Council has the documents to prove it.

“One of the nuns, or even the Mother Superior of the order was buried in one of the vaults prior to the nuns leaving in 1903,” Meader says.

“When the nuns left The Warren in 1903, they had to get special permission from council to move the body and re-bury it on the grounds of their new convent.

“I came across council documents and a burial certificate during my research and those documents are now with the council.”

The burial vaults at The Warren. Picture: Inner West Council Archives

Newspaper reports claim the Reverend Mother Prioress, Mary of the Cross — as she was known in the order — died in February 1891.

Marie Julia Portet, as she was known before she became a nun, was laid to rest in a grand affair. Perhaps this was the nun who was buried in the vaults?

The nuns’ move from The Warren also attracted a fair amount of scandal. They were evacuated by the Sheriff for failing to pay the outstanding mortgage, supposedly while they were at breakfast.

Newspaper headlines and local outrage was aimed at the Catholic Church who refused to take responsibility for the now-homeless nuns because they claimed they did not ask them to come to Australia in the first place.

Instead, Meader says, they were taken in temporarily by local Marrickville families.

Eventually, the Catholic Church did buckle and had a convent created for them on Wardell Rd, Dulwich Hill.

The Warren mansion in the late 1800s when the nuns were in residence. Picture: Inner West Council Archives

The seven-plus acre block gave them a view of the surrounding country and had a two-storey building with 11 rooms, including a ground floor oratory room. They lived there until it was sold in the 1980s, by which time they numbered only five.

“It was surrounded by a wall in Dulwich Hill and as a young girl, we would climb the wall to see if we could see the nuns,” Meader recalls of her childhood in the inner west.

“There was a story shared about the nuns that they spent all their time digging graves and we wanted to see. But all we saw was them digging in their vegetable garden.”

Later, as an adult, Meader was invited onto the grounds to make a delivery as men were rarely allowed on the grounds.

She recalls a pleasant afternoon taking tea with the nuns who showed her around their monastery.

In 1988, the monastery was bought by the Maronite Christian church which today operates as a school with a chapel on site.

Got a local history story to share? Email [e-mail]

BREAKING UP THE WARREN

The sandstone burial vaults are one of the only remnants of The Warren still on its original site, but many more exist around the inner west.

After the 30-room mansion was demolished in the 1920s a lot of the stone was bought by Marrickville Council which then was used in their roadworks.

You can still spy these remnants along street centres in the area. But a more prominent reminder is the two castellated towers that were a trademark of The Warren, originally built in the German gothic style.

They can still be seen at Richardson’s Lookout on Thornley St, Marrickville.

CARMELITE NUNS’ QUIET LIFE

The Carmelites are a Roman Catholic order which dates back to the 12th century. They evolved from a reform of the order by Teresa of Avila in the 16th Century.

These nuns are predominantly a cloistered order, which means they live an enclosed life away from the community, spending their days in silent meditation, prayer, work and penance.

As such, they rely on the goodwill and charity of their community and will often work at crafts, which they sell to support themselves.

The first Carmelites arrived in Australia in 1802 and today there are several Carmelite Monasteries throughout the country.