St Joseph’s1

The Story

Story by Ruth Baker | Illustration by Rebecca Sheerin | Design by Rob Hotchkiss

Introduction

St Joseph’s his story is not restricted to If our visitor is concentrating on 3 TSkerton, nor even to Lancaster or the road ahead they may well miss parish in Skerton the North West. It spans not only the an imposing building set slightly is over a century centuries, but countries, across the back from the road concealed in old. Like the British Isles to continental Europe the summer by the vibrant leaves and back again. It is inextricably of many beech trees. But if they do ancient road that linked to the wider world by the glance as they drive past they may it sits upon, its nature of the universality of the well see that there is unmistakably a story is long and Catholic Church. church standing in spacious grounds, an impressive tower breaking into far reaching, A casual visitor to Lancaster may the sky. They will see bricks and its beginnings well drive in or out of the city via mortar and perhaps be intrigued by murky and the A6, the road that stretches from its impressive historic architecture. the south to the north of the country What they won’t be able to see with clandestine, like a spine through the middle of a mere look is the deeply rich human inspiring and England. At the northern end of story that brings blood and life to its courageous Lancaster, the A6 will take our visitor stone walls. through Skerton, a once independent township that is now encompassed This account is that story. It is not a within the wider city, its houses history of the parish; parish histories spilling up to the banks of the River have already been written and written Lune that, nevertheless, separates it very well.1 This is not an attempt to from the rest of the city. catalogue every event in the existence 1 St Joseph’s Lancaster 1901-1976 (Preston: of the parish, but rather to tell a story T. Snape & Co, 1976) that follows the thread of the life of and Our People Our the parish from before its physical Parish. A History of St Joseph’s Skerton construction, through to its design 1896-1996 (1996) and early beginnings, wars to peace and into the present day. Part One Lancaster and the Reformation

Part One t was dark along the hedgerows, It had been twelve years since 5 Iand in the nightfall, it was easy a Catholic had been executed in The hard road to stumble on the broken country Lancaster and there had been good and the lanes. But the shadowy figure, reason to hope that that would have dark night wrapped up against the bitter cold, been the last time the town would see knew the countryside as though it blood-soaked streets at the expense were a roadmap to his own heart. of religious freedom. The people Traveling miles alone he was of Lancaster were appalled. Both familiar with the hard road and Protestants and secret Catholics alike the dark night. Adept at disguise, were united in the belief that the his purpose was spoken about execution simply would not and could only in whispers by those whose not take place; it was widely said indiscretion could cost him his life. that a last-minute reprieve would be Though well acquainted with the granted. Yet as the days lumbered shadows, he carried with him a light towards the date of execution, in the form of a mission; to ease nothing changed. Arrowsmith suffering, bring hope, and minister remained interned within the damp to wounded souls. walls of Lancaster Castle, no reprieve was granted, and though it was all After sundown he would arrive in anyone talked of day after day, no secret places; the farms and barns one in authority stepped forward to of those sympathetic to him, or the grant clemency. wealthy houses of those who could 2 John Hogan, Edmund Arrowsmith support him, where he would offer To make matters worse, Sir Henry (CTS Saints of the Isles Mass, flimsily protected by watchmen Yelverton, the judge who had Series, 2016) from the priest hunters. condemned Fr Arrowsmith to death, was a man burdened and embittered He escaped the gallows once in his with his own personal grievances, life, but the second time his luck ran and he arranged a most barbaric out. The man known by many names death for the priest. He was to was discovered to be Fr. Edmund be hanged, drawn and quartered, Arrowsmith, a Catholic priest, and disembowelled and his organs thrown he was betrayed at the Blue Anchor on a fire. His head was to be boiled Inn by a young couple he had been and displayed on a stake in the attempting to help. He was put on city. Sir Henry Yelverton’s friends trial and condemned to death. The had taunted him, declaring that he execution was arranged for August wouldn’t dare sentence a Catholic 28th, 1628. To be a Catholic, and to priest to death. Yet Yelverton had no be a priest in England in the 1600s intention of losing face. was to be a traitor to the Crown.2

Perhaps still anticipating that the amongst the crowds and on a leaden- 7 execution would be called off, the sky summer’s day, Fr Arrowsmith people of Lancaster came out in mounted the ladder to his death.3 droves to watch the beginning of the proceedings on the day of the Sir Henry Yelverton refused to come execution. Arrowsmith was to be to the execution site but watched taken from Lancaster Castle up a hill instead through a spyglass from the just outside of the city, to a patch window of a friend’s house. Later of moorland where the hanging that evening they dined on venison. would take place. The exact timing Sitting at the table, Yelverton of the execution had changed several compared the meat side by side times in the hope that it would not with Arrowsmith’s organs that he attract a large crowd; Yelverton had demanded be brought to him was eager to avoid civil unrest. He to inspect. was to be thwarted on that point at least. Fr Arrowsmith was known for Undoubtedly there were some in the his cheerful character, his warmth crowd that day who came to watch and his quick wit. Whether or not for the gruesome thrill of it. But there Lancastrians knew this first-hand, were also people who came to be they nevertheless revolted against edified by the death of a martyr. Fr the idea of his execution. Yelverton Arrowsmith had gone willingly and may well have ordered his killing, unwaveringly to an unfair and unjust but with the time of execution death. Mid execution, while still in 3 Michael Mullett, ‘Reformation and imminent, no one could be found control of his faculties, he said: Renewal 1450-1690’ willing to carry it out. A pitiful and in Andrew White tragic passing of the buck occurred in “I die for love of thee; for our (ed.), A History of Lancaster 1193-1993 the final, scrambled moments before Holy Faith; for the support (Keele University Press: the allotted time of Arrowsmith’s of the authority of thy vicar Ryburn Publishing, death. A butcher had been hired to on earth, the successor of St 1993), p. 62. do the job but paid his servant five Peter, true head of the Catholic pounds to carry out the task instead. The servant, as it is delicately put in Church which thou hast one history, ‘absconded’; he would founded and established.” not have an innocent man’s blood on his hands. With time running This was Lancaster in the out, an army deserter was found and Seventeenth Century. pressed into service. He did what most other men would not, and so To be a Catholic, from 1529 until The implications of these rulings the slow drag of the Catholic Relief meant that the celebration of Mass Acts that took from 1766 to as late was illegal. It must have seemed as 1926 to enact, was to put oneself at that time that the decline at a severe social disadvantage.4 The of Catholicism in England was severity of this disadvantage waxed inevitable. Indeed, the majority of and waned through the centuries the lay faithful, either by conviction depending on the whims of Monarch or in fear of their lives, submitted and political climate, but at its to Protestantism. Meanwhile, most severe it was to risk one’s life. the practice of the Catholic faith After the bloody upheavals of Henry burrowed ever deeper underground. VIII’s break from Rome, Edward Yet determination for the survival VI’s enforcement of Protestantism, of the Faith was strong, and the Mary I’s dizzying, brutal and all too seminary in Douai, France, which short return to Catholicism, came was founded by a Lancashire man, Elizabeth I’s initially moderate reign. Cardinal William Allen, in 1568, was Elizabeth’s temperate approach to to become of primary importance the question of religious freedom in the perseverance of the Catholic for Catholics must have come with Church in England. While Oxford and some glimmer of hope for common Cambridge were both cleansed of folk, exhausted by the constant Catholics, a new English College was volatile change from one extreme established in Rome, also founded by to another. However, all this Cardinal Allen in 1579. Seminaries 4 The Roman Catholic Relief Bill. changed in 1570 when Pope Pius V at Valladolid (1589) and Saint Omer https://api.parliament.uk/ excommunicated Elizabeth and stated (1596) were built. These were the historic-hansard/ that her English citizens were free powerhouses of the English Mission, lords/1926/dec/10/ roman-catholic-relief- from their responsibly to owe her training young men smuggled out of bill#S5LV0065P0 loyalty. The Crown retaliated. They England, who would return to their _19261210_HOL_3 expelled all Roman Catholic priests homes as priests to minister secretly from the country in forty short days. to the lay faithful. Priests could remain only if they took an oath of loyalty to the Queen. Despite much strife and confusion, The offence was high treason; its Roman Catholicism survived in punishment death. Anyone assisting England thanks to the concerted or hiding a priest could be committed efforts of priests and people. The as a felon or executed by the swifter role of the gentry at this time was method of decapitation. To be invaluable; they could ensure that hanged, drawn and quartered was a priests remained hidden and looked ruthless technique reserved only for after with a roof over their heads priests and traitors. and food to eat so that they could provide the sacraments to the people. They provided a safe place for the faithful to come when churches could no longer be used. In these secret rooms with secret passages the Real would return once ordained. Many 9 Presence in the Eucharist could be were, in effect, signing their own maintained in the long years English death warrants. Once their studies Catholicism was suppressed. While were completed and ordination had the South and East of England in taken place they returned to England, closer proximity to London kept up arriving at night on the eastern with the Protestant reforms sweeping shores of the British Isles, contending the Continent, in the North West a with darkness, inclement weather and more organised Catholic resistance anyone unsympathetic to their cause. could be sustained. This recusancy At this point, portraying oneself as was so successful that in 1567 Queen a wealthy gentleman of leisure, was Elizabeth wrote to Bishop Downham a useful ploy if it could be managed. of Chester who was responsible for One such priest, Fr John Gerard Lancashire saying that nowhere else (1564-1637) excelled at this, taking in the country saw such ‘disorders’ as on the role of an affluent countryman in Lancashire and that she found ‘a almost to the point of scandal so great lack’ in his efforts to stamp out convincing was his prowess at cards, ‘popery’.5 She ordered him to ensure carousing and hunting.6 that the matter was soon dealt with. Even so, despite the relative ease From the coast, the priests would with which Catholicism could survive travel into England, always at the in the North West, the price was mercy of those who could afford to still high, and over the centuries the conceal them, vulnerable to whatever 5 Michael Mullet & Leo Warren, Martyrs of the people of these areas paid for it with measure of welcome they would Diocese of Lancaster their lives. receive. This could be frustrating; a (Preston: T. Snape & priest could find a place to stay but Co., 1987). p. 14. The dramatic story of these recusant if his hosts were unwilling to let 6 John Gerard, The priests sweeps from the heartlands him travel or have others visit him, Autobiography of an of England, across the swell of the his vocation to serve was severely Elizabethan, trans. English Channel and reaches deep stymied. Even when priests could Philip Caraman (Leominster: Family into the centre of a tumultuous serve the faithful, their safety was Publications, 2006) Europe. To become a Catholic priest dependant on the silence of their necessitated leaving England in local communities which could turn 7 Alice Hogge, God’s Secret Agents (New complete secrecy, or under pretence them in at any time. In some cases, York: Harper Collins, of one’s real destination. Once safely priests were arrested mid-way 2005) arrived at the seminary, English through Mass, or forced to hide for candidates for the priesthood had days without food or relief in tiny to sign a promise stating that they priest holes while properties were combed from top to bottom in search of them.7 To become a Catholic priest necessitated leaving England in complete secrecy ...

Resistance also took simpler forms that took place at Lancaster Castle. 11 and, emboldened by local authorities But in the centuries before, fifteen willing to turn a blind eye, the lay Catholics were brought to trial and faithful could make their feelings executed on the moor on the hills known in creative ways. The term above Lancaster. The Feast Day of the ‘Church Papists’ was applied to Lancaster Martyrs is celebrated on Catholics who made the required 7th August. The opening collect for visit to Anglican services but under the celebration of their Mass reads as duress. They made their true feelings follows: known by praying the Rosary during the service, stuffing cotton wool in Almighty Father, may those their ears during the sermons or who died on the hill above using Latin prayer books instead Lancaster, grieving for 8 of the English translation. Women England which they prayed were intrinsic to Catholic continuity God soon to convert, be our during these times; in gentry families it was the women who oversaw patrons now in heaven that and made the decisions on fasting, our lives may witness to the abstinence and the keeping of feast faith they professed. days. The choice of what to eat and how to celebrate could affect large In the dark days of persecution, it households from the most important must have seemed that the possibility member of the gentry family to the of Catholicism ever returning 8 Mullet & Warren, Martyrs., p. 13. lowliest servant employed under that to her full glory in England was roof. While it was not uncommon for bleak indeed. This was the state of 9 Ibid., p. 16. men to conform outwardly to the new Lancaster and the little settlement religion in order to make their way of Skerton: the Catholic faithful in life, the women kept the integrity remained for many years without of the Catholic faith and life intact priests, without churches and without in their homes and amongst their the sacraments. Perhaps many hoped families. In Cumbria, for example, and prayed for the day when peace seventeen of twenty-two Catholic would return and they could worship families were ‘led by wives with freely and openly, but many did not husbands who conformed’.9 live to see it happen.

Lancaster’s reputation as the ‘hanging town’ was confirmed in the 1800s by the many hangings Part Two Learning How to Breathe Again

Part Two ienna rang with the sharp clip rolling hills of Roeburndale, he found 13 Vof iron on stone, jangle of metal his home in the Austrian Army, an Walking along on leather, and the cacophony of army whose Empire had only recently the banks of the all humanity’s rich and poor. He been known as the Holy Roman Danube, Henry had arrived at the seat of a titanic Empire, its capital city the seat that European Empire in the early bridged Western Europe with the Coulston was a Nineteenth Century and though he East, an army that marched under long way from did not know it then, his family the standard bearing an image of the the Lune and would eventually become the Immaculate Conception. This army catalyst for the origin of St Joseph’s was truly to become Henry Coulston’s his Lancastrian Parish in Skerton. But meanwhile entire life, for he was to die in it in home he, like many other Catholic 1833; a long way from home indeed.11 Englishmen before him, had left all he’d known for high adventure in The Coulston family were immensely mainland Europe. wealthy. The gap between the rich and the poor was not one easily Coulston’s family had made their navigated, and they could have wealth in Lancaster in one quick easily protected what they had generation by their ‘corner[ing] of the worked so hard to gain. With the bulk of Lancaster’s leather trade’.10 death of Henry, and another brother, The Industrial Revolution made them John, who was a mission priest in rich; a rapidly growing population, Wilmslow who died in an epidemic

10 more horses, more shoes, more tack in 1889, the family wealth passed to Our People Our 12 Parish, p. 2. meant that they climbed the social Margaret Coulston, born in 1823. ladder with breath-taking swiftness. She had a sister who became a 11 Norman Gardner, Even so, not all doors were open Carmelite nun, Mother Mary Frances. ‘The Coulston Family’s Part in the Catholic to them in this new world of high She too was no stranger to the need Revival in Lancaster’, in social standing. They were Catholic, to travel for the continuation of one’s http://lahs.archaeology and this meant social disadvantage. faith; by the time she became a nun uk.org/Contrebis/ Henry Coulston, seeking the career her Religious Order had already fled 23_46_Gardner.pdf of an army officer, could not receive to the Low Countries during the 12 Our People Our a commission in the British Army. Reformation. They settled there for Parish, p. 2. Instead, though born and bred in the a few hundred years before being 13 ‘The History of forced to return to England, this time Darlington Carmel’ in due to the persecutions unleashed by www.darlington the French Revolution.13 carmel.co.uk/about practise their faith again. Catholics were free After generations of oppression,

Many of the Catholic martyrs of to Catholics again. After generations the Reformation are now canonised of oppression, Catholics were free to or beatified, their deaths so public openly practise their faith again. that their witness was unequivocal. Other likely martyrdoms are more The progression of Catholic obscure; their witness less easily emancipation owed much to verified, while others simply died in Daniel O’Connell, an Irish MP who prison, like Fr Paul Atkinson (1655- campaigned in Westminster, and in 1729) condemned not to execution, 1829 the Roman Catholic Relief Act but a lifetime’s imprisonment for was passed. It was into this world his vocation as a priest. And then, that Margaret Coulston was born, her little by little, the tide turned, and Catholicity an important part of her a steady development of Catholic identity, and her wealth a useful tool emancipation took place. The process to support the new shoots of Catholic was complicated: Beginning with the growth in Lancaster. The Industrial Papist Act in 1778, relief was granted Revolution had indeed supplied her in the form of land ownership to family’s wealth, but it had also in Catholics on certain conditions. This an unexpected way allowed for the led to anti-Catholic riots in London regeneration of Catholicism. Irish and Scotland, but by 1791 Catholics Catholics who had made their way to were allowed to practise their faith, England to help to build the canals, establish schools, and even to build railways, work in factories had to churches. Restrictions were still in be provided for both physically, and 14 D. G. Paz, Popular Anti-Catholicism in place. Schools, chapels and priests spiritually. In 1811 Catholics in the

Mid-Victorian England were to be registered. Chapels were Army had been given the right to to openly (1992), p. 299. to be discreet; no bells and steeples worship freely on account of the were permitted. The barn churches higher number of Irish Catholics at Claughton-on-Brock, Goosnargh, serving. The British government Scorton, Fernyhalgh, Cottam and could no longer turn a blind eye to Hornby are good examples of this the contribution of the Irish, and restrained style. No Masses in the the need to ensure their religious open air, no wearing of clerical freedom at that time. garments outside. But no longer would anyone be prosecuted for being At twenty-two years older than a priest, saying Mass, attending Mass, Margaret Coulston, and presumably assisting at Mass, for educating their never to meet, John Henry Newman children in the faith in established was the one to coin the phrase schools, or for joining any Religious the ‘Second Spring’. Newman was Order in communion with Rome. arguably the Victorian era’s most Occupations in law, politics and the famous convert at a time when lower ranks of the Army were open anti-Catholic sentiment was ‘an integral part of what it meant to be a Victorian’.14 His conversion in 1845 came at great cost to him. He practise their faith again. Catholics were free After generations of oppression,

had been Anglican vicar of St Mary’s byzantine architecture, began to take 15 Oxford, highly esteemed by his shape. Up and down the country contemporaries whose friendships towns and cities began to adapt and he lost along with his academic expand their makeshift chapels into and professional reputation. He left something more befitting a reviving the established Church of England Church. Plans for completely new for a Catholic Church that was just churches were drawn up and funds beginning to get back on her feet were donated or raised to enable after the persecution of the three them to be built. In the Nineteenth previous centuries. The Church Century one name stood out amongst had survived as a small persecuted the architects of these new churches; minority in England and had operated the name of Augustus Welby as a collection of scattered missions Northmore Pugin. served by priests who, though now lawful, still had the unenviable task Pugin’s most famous work was the of operating in makeshift locations Palace of Westminster, but in his and hostile environments. But in short lifetime he designed at least 1850 Pope Pius IX was finally able to 117 buildings, including churches, re-establish the hierarchal structure presbyteries and private homes, both of both England and Wales. Bishops in the UK and in Ireland. He died at were reinstated with spiritual only forty years old, leaving behind jurisdiction over geographical an impressive legacy of work. He dioceses, seminaries re-established was married three times and had 15 ‘The Life of Augustus Pugin’ in https://ipfs. and priests could now have their own eight children. Another convert to

to openly io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3W parishes and an organised structure Catholicism, in 1835 he was drawn knFiJnKLwHCnL72 to minister within. The English to it, as a friend said, ‘by its vedxjQkDDP1mXWo 6uco/wiki/Augustus Mission as it had been known was ceremonies’ which were ‘attractive 15 _Pugin.html now rooted in its own country, but to his imaginative mind’. with all the intention of continuing to look outwards.

With the newly established hierarchy, the growth in members, both converts and immigrants, the Roman Catholic Church began to build. It was time to return a Catholic Cathedral to London’s streets, and in 1895 Westminster Cathedral, with its grand Pugin had very exact ideas about After his death in 1852, his work what a church should look like and was continued by his sons. In 1866 he devoted his life to the Gothic style. Sebastian Pugin Powell, the grandson His conversion to the Catholic Church of Pugin, was born. Through his came from his love of Medieval education at Oscott, he came to architecture; he was inspired to seek serve regularly at Mass for John the thinking behind its shapes and Henry Newman (made a Cardinal in forms. Pugin believed that Gothic 1879). When he left school, he joined architecture was the only way to the Pugin and Pugin firm created show truly the grandeur of God in in 1875 by his uncles, and ‘did a architectural form: in short, ‘the large amount of work for churches, Gothic revival was to be the means convents and schools.’18 In 1904 he of reviving the spiritual and social took over the firm completely. values of the Catholic past,’ an attempt to pick up where the Church Back in Lancaster, Margaret Coulston left off before the Reformation.16 was hard at work procuring land Brian Doolan writes: that could be put to good use for the local community. The first Catholic Augustus Welby Pugin’s great Church in Lancaster had already strength and contribution been established, but this could was his conviction that not serve all the needs of a rapidly architecture should be based growing town. In 1896 a new Catholic school was built in Skerton, a place 16 Brian Doolan, on the principles of honest The Pugins and the where Catholic families could finally Hardmans (2004), p. 5. and revealed construction send their children to be educated. and truth to materials. A St Peter’s Catholic Church, now 17 Ibid p. 13. building should speak clearly Lancaster’s Cathedral, had been 18 Ibid p. 16. of its purpose and be utterly built in 1859, but it was a long walk honest. He stated that ‘all for those living in Skerton and the ornament should consist of surrounding areas, and so the new enrichment of the essential school was also used as a chapel. It construction of the building.’ cost £4618 to build, a price nearer to £1.6 Million in today’s money. He was convinced that Gothic architecture alone allowed these principles to be properly expressed. But more significant was his belief that the right kind of buildings helped create the right kind of society.17 St Joseph’s School had places to call to Finally, Catholics in Lancaster places had home again. This enormous price was donated How often in the previous centuries 17 anonymously by Margaret Coulston. the Catholics who had left England In 1899 Margaret built a house for to risk their lives for their faith must herself where she lived for ten years have felt so very far from home. And until she died in 1909. The land those, like Henry Coulston, who had next to the house was given by her, left family and friends to pursue with the funds necessary, to build a careers not possible to them in Catholic church for Skerton. Designed Britain must have wondered at times by Peter Paul Pugin, it upholds in if it was all worth it. But in slow and its architecture the original vision steady ways here was the Catholic of Augustus Welby Pugin, reflecting Church in England coming back to the grandeur of God, raising eyes life, one step at a time, beginning upwards towards something beautiful with the simple provision of priests and majestic. and makeshift chapels, progressing to the greater, more confident strides of The foundation stone was laid on the building of churches and schools. the Feast Day of St Joseph, the This was Catholics learning how to church’s patron, in 1900, just five breathe again. The unapologetically years after the start of the building of Catholic and magnificent design of Westminster Cathedral in London. In the building of St Joseph’s was in his famous hymn, Lead Kindly Light, contrast to the local ‘Catholic relief’ written before his conversion, John chapels of the earlier century, legal Henry Newman had written: but built to the restriction that they must be discrete. There was, and is, The night is dark, nothing discrete about St Joseph’s, and I am far from home; and its confident presence on the side lead thou me on. of a major thoroughfare must have Keep thou my feet; felt liberating to the local Catholic community, who only generations I do not ask to see ago were hunted for their faith. the distant scene; one step enough for me. Finally, Catholics in Lancaster had places to call home again. had places to call to Finally, Catholics in Lancaster places had home again. Part Three Cut Down Like Sheep

Part Three n hushed rooms of the Vatican It is said that he died of a broken 19 IPalace the Pope lay dying. It was heart.22 As Europe embarked on one War and peace August 1914 and Europe had endured of the darkest periods of its history, in St Joseph’s a long, hot summer. The Pope had the Chair of St Peter sat vacant. and beyond foreseen what many others could not, or would not; war, deadlier Eight months passed. The war that and more destructive than the heat had broken the Pope’s heart was that had cloyed heavily over Europe now tearing bloody discord across all summer, was approaching, Europe. On the morning of 23rd April threatening to engulf the entire 1915, Canadian and British soldiers world. Long before it became gathered to hold the line at the common parlance, Pope Pius X village of St Julien near the strategic had used the term ‘Great War’ in a Belgian town of Ypres. It was crucial letter to a Cardinal in 1912.19 Over that the German forces did not pass; several years he implored peace and if they did they would gain access to a blood-free resolution to the sabre Belgium’s sea ports and beyond. This rattling that proliferated across an was the First Battle of Ypres, and a agitated continent. In his statement: new and deadly weapon was to make “A Call to the Catholics of the Whole its debut. Few men would understand World” he begged them to “to what it was, but its effects were implore God that he may have mercy deadly. That morning Canadian and on His people by putting a speedy British soldiers saw yellow-green end to this catastrophe and by clouds tumbling towards them. 19 George J. Marlin, ‘World War I and the inspiring the leaders of the peoples The scent of pineapples and pepper Papacy’ in https:// to peaceful thoughts and actions”.20 drifted on the air, but this was poison www.thecatholic gas and it made for a lingering death, thing.org/2014/08/ 02/world-war-i- Pius X released his address on burning eyes and tightening throats; and-the-papacy/ August 2nd. On August 4th German death by asphyxiation. Precautions troops, ignoring Britain’s entreaties, were quickly made: urine could be 20 Ibid. advanced into neutral Belgium. soaked onto handkerchiefs or socks 21 Ibid. Britain, ally of Belgium, declared to neutralize the chlorine gas but this war on Germany. Sixteen days later, was a makeshift solution at best. The 22 Nicholas Schofield, as the enormous cogs of war were men ran for their lives and the line ‘British Catholics and the Great War’ in grinding into action across European was heavily compromised. But given https://www.faith. soil, the Pope died. He had wished to the unprecedented ‘success’ of the org.uk/article/british- offer his “miserable life” if it would gas, the Germans themselves feared catholics-and- have meant the war’s prevention.21 advancing and stalled. the-great-war This gave the Canadians and British the Episcopal Hierarchy in England enough time to regroup and to and the Catholic Church was well on defend their section. But when its way to becoming a community of the time came to collect the dead equal standing with the Established there were hundreds of casualties; Church in the country’s public life. whole battalions nearly annihilated. The Catholic Church and her faithful Amongst the dead that day was still faced prejudice and restriction; reported a nineteen-year-old boy; his the Church was still reviled in some body missing, presumed dead. This quarters, but her position in the boy was a Private in the Lancaster country was by now open, legal and Kings Own Regiment. His name was so very different from what it had George Cathcart. Poignantly, he died been only decades before. Lancastrian on the feast day of the soldier patron Catholics now had St Peter’s Church of England, St George. It took weeks near the town centre, and St Joseph’s for the news of Private Cathcart’s in Skerton, finished and opened death to wend its way from St Julien in 1901. The parish school, open across the sea to London, and from in 1896, had many successes in its there to his parents, John and Mary initial years, and slowly but surely Cathcart, of Skerton, Lancaster. He a thriving Catholic community was was the first of the parish sons of St growing. The outbreak of war in 1914 Joseph’s to fall. was a great tragedy to befall any community, but it was the first and Many more young men from the most tragic to hit the young parish, 23 Normal Gardner, The War Memorials. Section parish were to lose their lives in only thirteen years old. At the time, 10 in St Joseph’s the subsequent bloody years that high unemployment rates haunted Parish Archives. followed. The Cathcarts lost a second Lancaster. In the years before men son, their seventeen-year-old who had emigrated to Canada to find died only weeks later on the 5th May work and on the outbreak of war 1915. Both boys had enlisted on 4th employees of the Lune Mills were September 1914 and they were not actually encouraged to sign up for to survive even a year of the war. the duration of the war.23 The Army They were one of sixty-two sets of meant security, adventure and wages. brothers lost in Lancaster during the First World War. The nationwide patriotic fervour that is often spoken about in the same Back in August 1914 Pius X’s ‘Call breath as the beginning of the war to the Catholics of the Whole World’ was not shared by everyone. The now of course included the re- new Pope, who replaced Pius X on established Roman Catholic Church in 3rd September, 1914, took the name England and Wales. Sixty-four years Benedict XV. He adamantly called for had passed since the Restoration of peace as soon as he was elected. ‘In his first statement to the faithful, he declared he was “stricken with inexpressible horror and anguish the British Army the same freedom as 21 before the monstrous spectacle of their Roman Catholic counterparts.26 this war with its streams of Christian blood’.24 The Pope remained impartial In Lancaster 1012 men are to any country or political stance commemorated as war dead from throughout the war; his flock of the First World War. While the men faithful Catholics were to be found were risking their lives on the Front in every single Army in the theatre in France and Belgium, many women of the First World War.25 Each were employed in the munition nation’s Catholic chaplains operated factories at home, at great risk to in varying ways depending upon their own lives. This was no more the restrictions placed upon them apparent than in 1917, when the by their respective countries. On White Lund factory disaster occurred. account of the separation of State and Women were employed to fill the Church, French priests were called up shells which would then be used on alongside regular soldiers and served the Front. On the 1st October 1917 their fellow men as best as possible an explosion ripped through one alongside them. German chaplains of the buildings of the White Lund were known to give the Last Rites to munitions factory. The subsequent English Catholics behind enemy lines damage was horrific; three days in PoW hospitals and camps. Both of fires and explosions followed. Anglican and Catholic chaplains in Communities in the surrounding the British Army were required for area, including Lancaster and as far 24 Op. Cit. Marlin. their own safety to stay in reserve away as Burnley, could feel the earth 25 A comprehensive trenches and avoid the front lines, but shaking, furniture visibly moving, explanation of the Catholic English and Irish Catholic chaplains and windows blown in. Some families demography of each belligerent’s armies can gained a reputation among the men were so shocked that they moved be found in Harry Schnitker, for the disregarding of this rule and from the area and never returned. The Church and World War I administering the sacraments in the Ten people died and many were (CTS, 2015). Front Lines and beyond. In 1916, this injured.27 War was never far from

26 Martin Purdy, ‘Roman front-line ban was relaxed to allow people’s lives, but during those three Catholic Army Chaplains chaplains to accompany their troops days, war had come home. It was to During the First World War: out of the reserve trenches and into devastate the factory site so badly Roles, Experiences and Dilemmas’, p. 39 in http:// battle giving the Anglican padres of that it was unusable for the rest of clok.uclan.ac.uk/3762 the war, and those who had survived /2/Purdy%20Martin%20 with their lives, lost their jobs. Final%20e-Thesis%20 (Master%20Copy).pdf

27 ‘White Lund Explosion’ in the Lancaster Guardian, Wednesday 26 September 2007 in www.lancasterguardian. co.uk/lifestyle/nostalgia/ white-lund-explosion -1-1170802 Perhaps such was the trauma of the A very high price was paid by many aftermath of the war that there is people, both at home and abroad to some confusion over the parish and keep Lancaster, on the Lune standing school memorials of the names of secure. those who lost their lives during it. It is not even certain when the parish How does a community devastated by memorial was placed in the church, war return to normality and continue though it is likely it was up by 1920.28 with its life? It is not easy to tell. Sixteen names are engraved on this Skerton, out of all of Lancaster was marble memorial that compliments particularly badly hit with loss. In the the design of the church itself, but ‘small cluster of streets downstream twenty-three from the parish died of Skerton Bridge between the river in total; some in battle, others from and Lune St… 41 people died’ and their wounds on the return home ‘slightly up river in Skerton, the or at home, and some in training. area between Aldrens Lane, Pinfold Norman Gardner movingly explains Lane and the river… where 75 people that ‘barely a street in Lancaster and died’.31 Skerton escaped the touch of the grim reaper’, and in some streets, few did Whilst it can certainly be said that not know of a neighbour suffering belief in God was inconceivable for bereavement of sons, brothers, and many after the trauma and loss of the fathers. Some parents lost all their First World War, it is also true that sons.29 Catholic conversions abounded. These 28 Op. Cit. Gardner, War Memorials. were strengthened by experiences The famous war poet, Siegfried in the trenches: the bravery of 29 Ibid. Sassoon, writes about meeting Christ chaplains, the witness of Mass in

30 Siegfried Sassoon, in the trenches in his poem The barns and ruins behind the lines and ‘The Redeemer’ Redeemer. He says that Christ comes in dugouts. The sacramental, tangible in https://www. to know that nature of the Catholic faith with the poetryfoundation.org/ overt image of suffering on crucifixes, poems/43168/the- redeemer Nights are very long, the carrying of rosaries, and wearing and dawn a watching of medals and scapulars, helped to 31 ‘The North West in of the windowed sky. spread understanding of the faith. the Great War: The One chaplain, Mgr Bickerstaffe-Drew, Worst Affected Streets’ But to the end, unjudging, wrote to his mother asking her to in http://wp.lancs. he’ll endure horror and pain, ac.uk/greatwar/the- send him more supplies, ‘I have given worst-affected-streets/ not uncontent to die that away about 1,200 and have none left. Lancaster on Lune may 32 Op. Cit. Schofield. Medals, small crucifixes, rosaries, stand secure.30 scapulars, Agnus Deis, I could give away lots of, and am always being asked for’.32 In his article on British Catholics and Even after the horrors of the War, 23 the Great War, Nicholas Schofield the Second Spring of Newman’s day writes that: was continuing, with high profile conversions of British intelligentsia [The First World War] led to unfolding throughout the century, many conversions. A priest to varying degrees of interest and writing in 1930 concluded that objection from those around them: ‘either directly or indirectly G.K Chesterton (1922), Graham Greene (1926), Elinor M Brent-Dyer through the War a very large (1930), Evelyn Waugh (1930), Muriel number of individuals have Spark (1954), Edith Sitwell (1955), been received into the Catholic Alec Guinness (1956), Siegfried Church, who otherwise, Sassoon (1957), Rumer Godden (1968) humanly speaking, would to name a few. Catholicism in Britain have remained outside. Well- was no longer in the shadows, and informed observers have great works of Catholic fiction and estimated this number for drama were to come from these literary conversions. Meanwhile the England at 70,000’.33 author J.R.R Tolkien, who became Catholic at the age of eight, brought In Skerton the parish set about into the Church by his mother, was memorialising their fallen, whilst the daily devotional life of the young parish matured and developed to write not only his epic Lord of the daily devotional life of the young the Rings trilogy, but also some 33 Ibid. parish matured and developed. St striking words on the Roman Catholic Joseph’s, shortly after the end of the 34 Peter Kreeft, The doctrine of the Eucharist: Philosophy of Tolkien: First World War, celebrated the first The Worldview Behind ordination into the priesthood; James The Lord of the Rings Duffy in 1919. He was one of eight Out of the darkness of my (2005), p. 219, cited in children, who had lived near the life, so much frustrated, I put https://www.catholic. com/magazine/online- church before it was even built and before you the one great thing edition/jrr-tolkien- served at the altar at the Consecration to love on earth: the Blessed three-amazing-quotes Mass in 1901. Sacrament… There you will find romance, glory, honour, fidelity, and the true way of all your loves on earth.34 The essence of this quotation; the Children’s 9.30 Mass on a Sunday devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, morning the children sat with their was an integral part of St Joseph’s school teachers, not their parents, as parish life continued on into the while the 11am Mass was always Twentieth Century. Parishioners packed; if one arrived late it would today still remember the May be difficult to find a seat. This was a processions for Our Lady and the daily life infused with Catholicism; Corpus Christi processions with parish habits that continued into the the Blessed Sacrament: Steps 1950s. The young people of the parish choreographed to precision, flower knew not to take part in any evening girls strewing petals on the ground classes on a Thursday night, as it was at every eighth step. Such was the Benediction night. They themselves sight that crowds turned out from organised many social events which Lancaster, Catholics and non- were well attended. Socialising at Catholics alike, to watch. Masses the Men’s Club stopped at 9pm so were frequent and well attended; that the men could go and pray Night a 7:30 and an 8:30 each morning Prayer together. The new parish hall, which would be attended by some of built with great efforts of fundraising the school children. In these pre- by the parish, opened in March Vatican II days, fasting was required 1939 and allowed the parish to have from midnight before receiving dances, reunions and meetings of the Communion at Mass, rather than Youth Club, Men’s Club, Women’s

35 the one hour required now. Children Guild, Children of Mary and Catholic Our People Our 35 Parish, p. 21. arriving from Mass at school would Young Men’s Society. be provided with hot cocoa to start the day. Three Masses were This new lease of life for the parish’s celebrated on Sundays: 8.30, 9.30, social life would take a sudden and and 11am. Each Sunday of the month new twist in the coming months a different sodality from the parish after the opening of the new hall. would go up as a group to receive The summer of 1939 was to be the Communion; the Catholic Young last one of the all-too-brief period of Mens Society (CYMS) one week, peace after the end of the Great War. followed by the Children of Mary (for The Second World War, as it came young people aged up to sixteen) and to be known, was arguably one that the Guild of St Agnes (for children impacted even more terribly on those up to the age of eleven). The third left behind at home thanks to the Sunday of the month was for the targeted bombing raids exchanged by Guild of the Blessed Sacrament, and both sides on their enemies’ civilian on the forth Sunday people of the populations. War is not just tragic, parish went up individually. At the but also absurd, and perhaps none prayed for their...safety

more so than the curious experiences who went in huge droves to pray 25 that the children of Skerton’s Catholic at Cathedrals and local churches, school, St Joseph’s, would become forming long queues as they waited familiar with in the following years. to enter. It is a testament to the In silent single file lines they would healing that must have continued cross their playground to descend since the last century’s worth of underground to newly-built shelters. Catholic Relief Acts that there is The boys would go ahead to light the no doubt that all Christians of oil lamps, and the children would whatever hue would have joined in sit on seats around the edges of this initiative to pray, and there can the shelter to wait out the sound be no doubt that parishioners of St once again at war the country was of the All Clear. The country was Joseph’s would have faithfully and once again at war, and though this urgently prayed for their country’s particular experience must have and army’s safety. Throughout May been frightening for the children, it 1940, the parish Notices Book, read was guaranteed that someone would out by the priest at the end of each blow the lamps out in the shelters, Mass, recorded that all the Masses plunging them at once both into throughout the month were to be darkness, and fits of barely subdued offered for a ‘just and honourable laughter. peace’ and every Catholic was obliged to ‘make at least one visit to the As ‘the Phony War’ warmed up into church daily for this intention’ for the Second World War, as we know ‘our men [are] now dying in their it today, a long predicted and much thousands’. Indeed, the parish priest dreaded war, the King was moved on this week instituted the public to call the nation to pray. On 23rd recitation of the Rosary every night May 1940 he saw that Britain was in throughout the week for peace, grave danger, as its army, along with leading to a day of intercession with other Allied nations, was trapped on Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament the North West coastline of France, and Rosary every hour at 1, 2, 3 (for with nowhere to run, the sea behind the children), 4, 5, 6 and 9 o’clock. them and Hitler’s Army, successfully already in control of much of Western Europe, at their front. Annihilation was almost certain. Faced with such a desperate prospect, King George VI implored the nation to pray, making the following Sunday a National Day of Prayer. This was faithfully observed by the general population, These prayers were answered as what A day of Thanksgiving was followed next was the Miracle of announced for Sunday 9th June 1940. Dunkirk: The war was only just beginning, but a terrible premature end had been In a decision that infuriated adverted. his generals and still baffles historians, Hitler ordered The ensuing ‘Blitz’ of the following his army to halt. Had they years caused not only death and devastation across the country but continued to fight, the also practical changes to the way the destruction of the Allied forces parish worshipped in St Joseph’s. would have been inevitable Blackout regulations restricted the and the war would have taken amount of light allowed in the church a different, darker and more during night hours, meaning it was terrible path. Yet for three in near darkness for the Thursday days the German tanks and evening Masses and Benediction; soldiers stood idle while these were eventually moved to the evacuation unfolded. 3.30pm in winter time. This darkness may or may not have focused the Not only so, bad weather on mind and heart towards a more the Tuesday grounded the prayerful attitude, but it at least Luftwaffe, allowing Allied once it caused unexpected trouble, soldiers to march unhindered as sleepy altar boys, lulled into near 36 J. John, ‘How a Day of Prayer Saved Britain to the beaches. In contrast, slumber by the darkness meant that at Dunkirk’ in www. on Wednesday the sea was mid-way through Benediction the premierchristianity. thurible tipped its burning charcoal com/Blog/How-a- extraordinarily calm, making day-of-prayer-saved- the perilous evacuation less onto the priest’s cope, and the Britain-at-Dunkirk hazardous. By the time the alarmed declaration of “Something’s burning!” from the priest German Army was finally momentarily interrupted prayers. ordered to renew its attack, over 338,000 troops had been snatched from the beaches, including 140,000 French, Belgian, Dutch and Polish soldiers. Many of them were to return four years later to liberate Europe.36 There are nineteen names is buried in a Commonwealth War 27 commemorated from the parish, Grave in Skerton Cemetery, survived killed during the Second World War. by his wife and mother, who lived Like all churches, the parish had the on Vale Road, a mere five minutes’ honour and pain of accompanying walk from the church. He was one of her people through both the immense many brave members of the Polish joys and sorrows of life, no more Air Force, who fought alongside their starkly accentuated than during allies in Britain to free Europe from war time. This must have been the grip of Fascist tyranny. particularly true for the friends and family of the young pilot Marion Despite the concerns about Lis.37 Lis was born in picturesque Lancaster’s own safety, the parish Poznan, Poland, the son of cinema and school still welcomed evacuees owners. A move to Britain at some from Salford and later, Essex. The stage in his young adult life meant Second World War finally rumbled to that he survived the Nazi invasion an end and King George opened his of Poland and the terrible atrocities Victory speech on 8th May 1945 with that occurred for the Polish people at an emphatic thanksgiving to God, that time. Instead, one memorable adding that night, Lis attended a house party in Wales, and perhaps across the “There is great comfort in gentle clink of drinks and quiet buzz the thought that the years of of conversation, met a beautiful 37 See the St Joseph’s darkness and danger in which Skerton Souvenir stranger who would, in the not-too- the children of our country Booklet on the blessing distant future, become his wife. In have grown up are over and, of the WWII and circumstances not recorded by the Later Conflicts please God, forever. We shall Memorial, 1994. annals of time they were married not in Wales, but in none other than St have failed and the blood of Joseph’s Skerton, in the autumn of our dearest will have flowed 1943. A parish war wedding; surely an in vain if the victory which occasion of great joy amid the terrible they died to win does not lead news both on the Home Front and to a lasting peace, founded on abroad. justice and good will”. Lis was not to see the end of the war, and the parish was to grieve his death along with many others during those dark years. On the 27th April 1944 Marion Lis was unable to abandon his plane as it crashed down over the South of England. He was only twenty-two years old. His body was brought back to Skerton where he Part Four Go Out to the Whole World

Part Four very society, no matter how the health and safety provisions of 29 Ebig or small, must rebuild after the stage and dressing rooms sadly Life, in all war, and after two horrific World brought an end to the Society in late its fullness, Wars, the people of Skerton and St 1990. continued Joseph’s deserved the long period of relative peace that followed, In the 1960 and 1970s the new though this by no means lessens the advances in technology meant subsequent tragedy of the need to that television was an increasingly add three more names to the parish familiar sight in people’s homes, and war memorial in 1967, 1995 and this meant that even St Joseph’s had 2007. What has passed the last seven the opportunity to be transmitted to decades since the end of the Second the nation during this time, when a World War has been a continuation Mass at the parish was televised. The of life despite the odds, despite Mass had to be ticketed due to space the attempts of destruction and and there was some difficulty over pain that war brings. Life, in all its who was able to get a ticket and who fullness, continued. wasn’t, but it was the parish taking a step forward with new technology, Perhaps the most exuberant sign of an adventure that it has continued the continuation of high-spirited life with the age of the internet and and joy was the thirty-three years social media. of wonderful performances from the St Joseph’s Amateur Operatic Another big change that occurred Society, founded in 1958 by Fr around this time was the Second Bernard Lockwood. Fr Lockwood Vatican Council and the subsequent began by fulfilling his dream to translation of the Mass into the perform The Dream of Gerontius, vernacular around the world. the poem by Cardinal Newman. Parishioners in Skerton remember The success of this performance this feeling odd and strange, and spurred the parish on to more; it was hard to follow, taking some getting eventually decided to put together used to. In 2010 the translation was one operatic production each year. finalised so as to stay closer to the The performances, while amateur, original Latin, and the richness of were of a professional quality, and the writings that came forth from were exceedingly popular, with many the Second Vatican Council is still people thoroughly enjoying their being explored today, by priest and involvement over the years. Only parishioner alike. rising costs and the need to upgrade From the start, the parish of St Joseph’s existed to serve, with Margaret Coulston’s establishment of the school before even the parish was built, and this was no different as the end of the Twentieth Century began to draw to a close. In 1986 St John’s to create an atmosphere that allowed Hospice was opened just up the all who entered to feel a sense of road from the church of St Joseph’s belonging and peace. She wished after it had become apparent that her staff not merely to ‘work’ at the the area needed a Hospice. Whilst Hospice, but to be a ‘presence when excellent care was being provided attending’ someone who is dying, at the then St John of God Hospital with courtesy and respect. In the in Silverdale, the hope was that a Hospice, the staff were meeting a dedicated Hospice could be built in a whole range of people, and while she more accessible location. Under the didn’t push the religious aspect of charismatic guidance of Sr Aine Cox her work she wished that ‘peace be and with the support of Sr Callistus, afforded’ to those to whom she was St John’s Hospice was funded, built doing the most basic of caring tasks and opened, ten years on from the for. She prayed that any fear in their inception of the idea. Sr Aine had a hearts would defuse, and she ensured courageous will to achieve what she that she spent a few moments in compared to climbing Everest, that prayer in the chapel each day. No 38 ‘History of St John’s Hospice’ in https:// is, the near impossible task of raising one was ever sent away from the www.sjhospice the funds to build the Hospice.38 She Hospice who was in need, whether it .org.uk/history/ did not hesitate to ask potential and be someone in need of care, someone influential donors very directly for who was homeless, or even, as monetary support, an approach that recently happened, a starving and eventually paid off when the Hospice stray dog, who was an unexpected was proudly opened by Anne, the arrival through the Hospice’s doors. Duchess of Norfolk, after a total of £1.9 Million was finally raised. This atmosphere of peace, hope and light still pervades the Hospice Sr Aine was not however simply today and is a testament to both involved in the very necessary task the strength of its founders and the of practical fundraising. She also gentle perseverance of its current embodied the ethos of the Hospice, or staff and volunteers. While not perhaps even was its genesis. Those officially linked with the parish, it who knew and worked with her, or was begun by the Sisters of Our Lady were cared by her, tell of her ability of the Apostles and maintains what we would call a Catholic ethos and there is still a chapel at the heart of its building today. There is one final memory that of Catholicism, coupled with the 31 happily concludes the story of St determination of Margaret Coulston Joseph’s Parish, and though it is not who would not die before a school contemporary, it is the most fitting and parish had been built through her to end on. On 25th October 1970 Pope generosity. Next the parish came to Paul VI canonised the Forty Martyrs cherish the sacrifice of its sons and of England and Wales, including daughters during terrible wars. And some of Lancashire’s own: Edmund this was followed by the rebuilding Arrowsmith and Ambrose Barlow, of society in the latter part of the who were both executed in Lancaster, Twentieth Century, fostered by all and Luke Kirby, John Plessington, the tiny little links of ordinary people John Rigby, John Southworth, and doing extraordinary things through John Wall, executed elsewhere. their kindness, care, concern for others and their abiding love of God In front of a vast crowd the Pope Paul and His Church and Sacraments, VI declared the authenticity of these oftentimes against great odds and saints’ martyrdoms and commended frustrations. their lives as good Christian examples to the world. Amongst the huge It is thanks to all these little links in crowd that day in Rome were also to a great chain of faith that the parish be found an Elizabeth Mackintosh of St Joseph’s survived and thrived, so and a Mrs Horn.39 They had travelled that on that plaza outside St Peter’s there from St Joseph’s School in in Rome in 1970, the announcement 39 Our People Our Pope Paul VI Parish, p.10. Skerton, England. They were there of these great martyrs’ canonisation as representatives of the school at did not fall on the uncomprehending the canonisation; the fortunate two ears of strangers, but on the ears whose names had been drawn out of of those who understood, who had a hat. walked the same streets, worshipped in the same town, eat, laughed, The story of St Joseph’s had come studied, played, loved, in the same full circle, though slowly, over many place they all knew as home: centuries. First, its hidden genesis in the murky Recusant days when Lancaster, the faithful were forced to slip on the Lune, undetected amongst the wild lanes Skerton, around Lancaster, when the martyrs in the parish refused to deny their faith as they of St Joseph. were dragged on a hurdle along the cobbles to the moor above the city, and when the city’s women kept the Old Faith going in the clandestine secrecy of their homes. Next came the gradual emancipation and freedom