ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY Save GOOD NEWS FOR THE EAST MIDLANDS • Compiled by Anthony P. Dolan GOOD NEWS FOR THE EAST MIDLANDS • Compiled by Anthony P. £4.00Order direct GOOD NEWS FOR THE EAST MIDLANDS An account of the background to, St. Barnabas Cathedral, Nottingham and the story of, his book outlines the history of Christianity in the English East Midlands the Diocese of (including Lincolnshire) from its beginnings in the fourth century Nottingham Tuntil the Reformation in the sixteenth. From this point onwards, it deals specifically with the story of Catholic Christianity leading to the establishment of the Diocese of Nottingham in 1850. Brief biographies of the Bishops of Nottingham are followed by accounts of each of the parishes of the diocese; these take up the major part of the book. In addition to the diocesan (or secular) clergy, the diocese has been served, at various times, by members of some fifty Religious Congregations of men and women. An outline of their origins, specific charisms and work in the diocese leads onto a consideration of saints and other holy people connected with the Diocese of Nottingham. The post-World War Two era has seen many significant developments, and some of these are now listed. R.R.P. £25.00£20.00 Designed & Produced by ISBN XXX-X-XXXXXX-XX-X Compiled by TUCANNbooks Unit 9, Blackthorn Way Anthony P. Dolan Five Mile Business Park Priest of the Diocese Washingborough, Lincoln LN4 1BF St Hugh of Lincoln t: 01522 790009 • e: [email protected] of Nottingham hen the lay-led appeal for the Sick and Retired Priests Fund was launched nearly Wfive years ago, it was suggested that, at the same time, a project should be adopted to support the missionary work of the Church in the Diocese of Nottingham. The subject chosen was ‘An account of the background to, and the story of, the Diocese of Nottingham.’ Canon Anthony Dolan, a retired priest of the diocese, was approached and readily agreed to compile such an account with the sole aim of assisting the missionary work of the Church. In the Introduction to this account, Canon Dolan writes: ‘If even a few people come to appreciate something about the wonders God has worked through Christians in the East Midlands over the past millennium and a half and are perhaps led to a knowledge and love of him, the time and energy which have gone into the compilation of this story will be, for the compiler, a more than sufficient reward.’ All those involved in producing this book hope it will be a useful resource for religious communities, parishes, and Catholic societies, and of interest to many ecumenical friends and to others in the Nottingham Diocese and beyond. 370+ pages full colour throughout The first seven of the Vicars-Apostolic of the Midland District came The Restoration of the Hierarchy from the highest level of the Catholic peerage and landed gentry; they left behind them a tradition of solid piety and conscientious devotion to duty; n 29 September 1850 the normal system of governance in the Cath- they did little that was notable. Their lives were spent largely in the saddle, olic Church was restored with the creation, in England and Wales, was opened in 1896. In 1936 the sanctuary was adorned with mural paint- making their way from one isolated Mission to the other. Of the stories that of an archdiocese (Westminster) and twelve dioceses. One of these ings of Saints Thomas More, John Fisher and local martyrs, and with Christ can be related about them with reference to the Diocese of Nottingham, one Owas the Diocese of Nottingham. the King over the chancel arch; these have since been covered or removed. It was at first intended to establish Broadbottom as an independent may be of particular interest. John Hornyold, the third of the Vicars-Ap- CHARLESWORTH ostolic was, as a young priest in the 1730s, stationed at Grantham. One parish. A priest was sent to reside near the chapel in 1895, and a succession Dioceses of England and Wales 1850 (Broadbottom) Immaculate Conception of missionary priests kept up until 1915. After that date the slump in the day he was saying Mass in a room next to the - still existent - Beehive Inn – served from Hadfield cotton industry made it impossible for the congregation to maintain its when the constable came to arrest him. He escaped arrest by throwing an own priest, and the Mission reverted to the status of chapel-of-ease to old woman’s cloak over himself and kneeling in the room in an attitude of Hadfield from that year until 1953. Some attempt was made in 1920 to raise prayer. funds for a presbytery and a part of the necessary money was collected, The Second Catholic Relief Act of 1791 legalised the erection of his chapel-of-ease within but the project of re-establishing Broadbottom as an independent Mission Catholic chapels – without steeples or bells. The first of these chapels in the Parish of Hadfield is was not realised at that time. From 1953 to 1971 Broadbottom was served the Diocese of Nottingham, at Osgodby near Market Rasen, built in 1793, is in the somewhat curious from Glossop, St. Mary Crowned. In the latter year Broadbottom became still in use in 2018. Tposition of lying within the Diocese an independent parish, and a presbytery was built in 1980 in Gamesley, John Milner, son of a Lancashire tailor, was appointed eighth of Nottingham, but serving a a nearby post-war estate. Since 1999 Broadbottom/Charlesworth has Vicar-Apostolic of the Midland District in 1803. He was very different congregation drawn almost exclusively been served from Hadfield. in background and style from his predecessors, and part of his mission from the Diocese of Shrewsbury. The Administrative Parish of Broadbottom St. Margaret’s Primary School was built at Gamesley. This is now as he saw it was to bring Catholicism into the towns; this was, after all, federated with All Saints Primary School, Old Glossop. the age of the Industrial Revolution. During the twenty-three years of his is itself situated in the County of Cheshire; the Chapel of ministry in the Midlands, among the significant factors in the development the Immaculate Conception is situated in the County of Derbyshire, with of Catholicism in what was later to become the Diocese of Nottingham was the River Etherow, marking the county boundary, flowing beneath its very the number of French priests in exile after the Revolution. In 1826, the year walls. Except for a small number of Catholics who come down from the of Bishop Milner’s death, nine of the twenty-five priests working in the Derbyshire village of Charlesworth, most of the congregation comes from territory at the later Diocese of Nottingham were French émigrés. Bishop Broadbottom and Mottram in the Diocese of Shrewsbury. Milner was also responsible for sending to minister to the Catholics of Not- Mass was said in Broadbottom during the late eighteenth century in St. Patrick & St. tingham early in 1825 one Robert William Willson about whose work much property belonging to Charles Bostock, and from 1875 in the committee CLAY CROSS room of the village Co-operative Store. A Mass centre of some sort was Bridget – served could be said. In addition to building the church or “Popish Chapel” as it from Alfreton was then called (since 1850 it has been known as St. Barnabas’ Cathedral,) first opened in Charlesworth by Monsignor Herman Sabela of Hadfield in Fr. Willson became, in 1842, first Bishop of Hobart Town, Tasmania. 1894. Later in 1894, the site of the chapel was presented by Lord Howard Bishop Milner was succeeded by Bishop Thomas Walsh, the ninth and of Glossop, and building began that summer. The church was opened by last of the Vicars-Apostolic. A significant further development, in 1840, Bishop Bagshawe on 26 August 1896. which would lead to the Restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy ten years The church is in a rural setting on the banks of the River Etherow, below the village, now popular with commuters to Manchester. The attrac- later, was the subdivision of the four Districts established in 1688 into eight. tive wooded grounds laid out by Monsignor Sabela in the 1890s include a The territory of the future Diocese of Nottingham was now split between statue of the Sacred Heart mounted on a rockery plinth facing the road and he very Irish dedication of this Mission is sufficient indication of the Eastern District to which Lincolnshire and Rutland were assigned, and a stone-built grotto over a spring. the nationality of its original congregation. When the bituminous the Central District which got Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and Leicester- The church is a local landmark, notable for its little altered interior with a coal of Clay Cross was first worked in the 1840s, it seems that a shire. Bishop Walsh became the first Vicar-Apostolic of the Central District, fine set of Gothic altars by Boulton of Cheltenham. The architect was Mr. Tconsiderable number of pit sinkers came from Ireland. Others came later moving his residence to Nottingham in 1844, the year of the consecration Oswald Hill of Manchester, and the contractors Messrs. Storrs of Staly- when the ironworks were opened in 1847. These immigrants were able to of St. Barnabas’ Church. Transferred to the London District in 1848, Bishop bridge. In accordance with the taste of the times, its altars are somewhat hear Mass at Wingerworth Hall, three miles to the north. When this passed Walsh died the following year. ornate, and this tendency has been maintained in the colourful murals exe- out of Catholic hands, the congregation was kept in being by a Mass centre cuted by Mr.