History of our School

St Dominic’s Priory School is an independent Catholic school located in the town of Stone, Staffordshire.

Stone is an attractive, thriving market town with an expanding population of 16,500, halfway between Stoke-on-Trent and Stafford. The school buildings are set within the pleasant grounds of St Dominic’s Convent, which was founded with the school in the 19th Century by Mother Margaret Hallahan.
The school was originally known as ‘Blessed Imelda’s Enpension School’.

The school was apparently found after Imelda, the niece of one of the sisters, refused to leave the convent and held on to the altar rails in the choir, until it was agreed that she could stay as a little boarder. It was her father, Jim Beech, who built the chapel of St. Anne’s (in the garden) for Ven. Fr. Dominic, and when he died he handed it over to Mother Margaret along with the field it stood, for her to build her dream convent and school.

In 1854 Mother Margaret brought two pensioners from her convent at The Foleys in Longton, to a cottage rented in Station Road. This was the nucleus of the convent boarding school! By 1857 pupil numbers had increased to eight, and on September 17th, 1863 the building of the school apartments were completed and the school was opened and placed under the patronage of Blessed Imelda.

The school still has a close relationship with the resident Dominican Community of Sisters, St. Mary’s Nursing Home and with the parish church of The Immaculate Conception and St. Dominic, which has an active Catholic community together with a resident priest and deacon.

In January 2020 we were very proud to open our new extended school building and our whole school footprint is now completely independent of the Dominican convent.