Will the Barn Owls return next year?

Earlier this year I watched  a commotion over the garden as gulls were chasing a barn owl and making a right old racket. This became a regular occurrence each evening for the next few weeks as I would stand in the garden mug of tea in hand and wait for the crepuscule show. The owl would fly low over the garden and through the gap between houses and on to the country park nearby. Some time later, alerted again by the gulls, I would see an owl return with a rodent dangling from a claw. Obviously returning to the nest with a meal for the chicks. 

Haven't seen an owl since early summer so I was wondering if next spring they will return to the same nest in the big houses at the back of ours and start another brood? I really hope so and will be prepared with a long lens.