IN PICTURES: Call The Midwife nuns aim to offer escape from reality

Now the nuns who have put this landmark convent up for sale say they hope to continue to offer 'an escape from the reality of life' from a new site.

The grade-II listed 20-bedroom property and grounds in Birmingham is being sold by the nuns who inspired Call The Midwife.

It has been home to five sisters from the Community of St John the Divine who can no longer afford its running costs.

Anglican Sisters, Christine Hoverd, Margaret Angela King, Elaine Knight, Ivy Patten and Shirley Hart, are hoping to continue their ministry by moving to smaller premises in Marston Green.

The work of the sisters in London's East End in the 1950s has become familiar to millions through the BBC show Call The Midwife, based on the memoirs of one of their district midwives, Jennifer Worth.

Sister Christine, said: "A lot of people today are very stressed and it is important that they have somewhere to go that is quiet and they can escape from the reality of life.

"We want to stay in Birmingham together because we are a community, but we have to downsize so we can afford the upkeep, but at the same time we want it to be a house of prayer that people can come to.

"We want everyone to be involved in our local community, what we have here at the convent is lovely and we want to find somewhere just as nice for people to use as a retreat."

The Community of St John the Divine was founded in 1848 as a nursing sisterhood helping to establish a modern system of nursing and midwifery with six sisters going to the Crimea to help Florence Nightingale.

They continued their work in the tough East London areas of Poplar and Deptford. And when the National Health Service was founded in 1948 they served alongside NHS doctors and midwives for several decades more. Sisters also worked in hospital in salaried posts.

Their work in Deptford ended in 1966 and in Poplar in 1978 and the community moved to their present house in Birmingham in 1976. The sisters describe Call The Midwife as a realistic look at how their life used to be, and the producer visited the community in order to make sure what was being portrayed was spot on.

The sisters no longer practice nursing and midwifery with their ministry in Birmingham for the last 39 years has been to set up a house of prayer and hospitality. But the Sisters still respond to the needs of the poor, now providing food parcels for the needy and a drop-in centre facility that saw 1,600 visitors to the house last year.

Sister Christine said they hope the next people to come into the convent have the same love for it they do.

She added: "We hope the people who buy the house will love it just as much as we do. It was a big part of our lives.

"Seeing over 1600 people come to escape their busy and stressful lives has been good for us as we know we can provide this atmosphere."