Upper Beeding also has the Roman Catholic Convent of the Blessed Sacrament, and The Towers, its associated private school.Upper Beeding has an area of about 2000 hectares and a population of 3760. Beeding is saturated with such historic associations, very little of which - thanks to a by-pass - is apparent to motorists speeding past the edges of the village.
NUNS IN EXILE A mile away from this potential hub of activity is an oasis of calm in the form of a convent and school taking the name of The Towers from the building it occupies. The nuns running it are Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a French religious Order and one of several whose houses and boarding schools were closed by anti-clerical laws in France a hundred years ago. The communities sought refuge in this country; and through the generosity of a Mr Payne, brother-in law of one of the nuns, the Sisters were able to take possession of The Towers, which had been used as a spacious house and hunting lodge. In 1903 a party of five pupils and two Sisters arrived in Beeding from Paris. It was a winter evening and one of the little girls, who went on to become Sister Marie Noel, recalled the occasion many years later: "It was quite dark and the only lights in the streets were two little lanterns carried by the Sisters who had come to meet us at Bramber station. At that time there were no gas lights, the village was very small and there were no passers - by except a few farm workers taking cattle to the fields....... As we entered the drive leading to the house we fancied we saw ghosts lurking on the crenellated towers. " The following day we explored our home - too grand for us - Gobelin tapestries on the walls, stags' heads on the main staircase with portraits of the Payne family below ... The first weeks were devoted to making a classroom in one of the large rooms, to learning our first English words and to clicking our tongues to pronounce 'the'". Ninety-four years on and The Towers, with some 200 pupils, has become a highly successful independent school.