The main building was begun in 1772, as a free hospital for the poor, but funding ran out two years later, and it was completed as a private residence.

They moved out of Taunton in 1950 and sold the convent to the Sisters of St. Joseph, who continued to run a school on the site for the next twenty-six years.

When the abbess visited the Lodge prior to the purchase, she had identified that it would require £1,000 worth of improvements in addition to the money already spent on its acquisition.

[2] The shell of the new body was completed by the autumn of 1808, but the work was delayed due to a lack of finances as £1,908 had already been spent on altering the old building.

[5] Within two years of being built, the roof on the new wing had to be replaced as it had started sinking; the joists "were made of bad wood & put in the wrong way".

[11] It is recorded that one of the nuns, Sister Mary Ann Wood, sustained a deep cut across her arm while opening a sash window.

During all this time, she was not able to use her hand or arm, and despite attempting a variety of different methods to repair the broken tendons, the doctor eventually declared that she may regain use of her forefinger and thumb, but not the rest of her fingers.

By this time, her arm and hand had withered, and Sister Mary Ann decided to make a novena (nine prayers) to Saint Winifred.

The Right Reverend Peter Collingridge, Vicar Apostolic of the Western District, after consulting a Catholic surgeon in London, declared "that the cure was supernatural and an evident miracle.

He claimed that his step-daughter, Augusta Talbot, had been forced to join the Franciscan Convent in Taunton as a postulant (the first stage to become a nun), rather than a pupil.

Berkeley alleged that the Shrewsburys first attempted to marry her to François VII de La Rochefoucauld, and then when she refused, placed her at the Taunton convent against her will.

[13] Lord Truro contacted Talbot, who stated that she was not a postulant, and she was amenable to his plans to remove her from the convent and place her in the care of a new guardian in London.

Further additions were made to the main building in the 19th century, including a Gothic chapel of red brick with ashlar dressings to the north.