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The Parish and Church of St Ignatius of Loyola Sunbury-on-Thames 150 Years 1869 - 2019 The Parish and Church of St Ignatius of Loyola Sunbury-on-Thames – 150 Years 1869 - 2019 The Parish and Church of St Ignatius of Loyola Sunbury-on-Thames – 150 Years 1869 - 2019 Contents The Foundation of the Catholic Parish of St Ignatius of Loyola in Sunbury 4 & 5 The Changing Face of Sunbury 6 The Building of the Sunbury Church of St Ignatius of Loyola 7 – 11 The Sanctuary Ceiling of Christ the King 12 & 13 Sunbury at War – the Great War Memorial Plaque 14 – 17 The Chancel Windows 18 & 19 A Church for the Modern Age 20 – 22 Snapshots in Time 23 – 26 Modern Artwork in St Ignatius Church 27 – 29 A Pilgrimage of Today – from Loyola by Bike 30 – 34 The Manning Room 35 Past, Present, Future … 36 – 37 Page 2 The Church and presbytery inPage 1987 3 The Parish and Church of St Ignatius of Loyola Sunbury-on-Thames – 150 Years 1869 - 2019 The Parish and Church of St Ignatius of Loyola Sunbury-on-Thames – 150 Years 1869 - 2019 The Foundation of the Catholic Parish of St Ignatius of Loyola in Sunbury The first Catholic residents of Sunbury, and worship. The parishioners of Sunbury, along Throughout the 1850s, the demand for thus the founders of the parish of St Ignatius with most other fledgling catholic parishes, migrant labour to build the railway from London of Loyola, were Irish migrants who arrived, used their weekday schoolroom as the focus for to Sunbury and Shepperton and the construction probably via the Welsh coast, in Sunbury celebration of Mass on Sunday. of the waterworks at Hampton increased the to seek work at the market gardening Around 1855, George Seymour’s school Catholic population of Sunbury. The railway operations that were prevalent in Sunbury, moved from Park Road to Laurel Cottages (also to London finally opened in 1864 and was the Brentford and Isleworth at the time. They known as Hanworth Road at the time). The two trigger for a huge expansion of Sunbury, as it had left their homeland, with their families, cottages he rented included a stable in the now provided the means of getting local produce to escape the now infamous Irish potato garden of one of the cottages. The thatched to the fresh food markets in London on a daily famine of 1846 to 1848. In Sunbury these stable was pulled down and converted into a basis. By 1862 the chapel at Laurel Cottages had Irish migrants lived in Multiply Place – a row brick and slate structure that was used as a been dedicated to St Ignatius of Loyola, although of workers’ cottages that were a few years school during the week and a chapel on Sunday the local map of the time has it marked as later pulled down to make way for - the first permanent Catholic chapel for the St Leonard’s – the reason for this is lost but it is the railway. people of Sunbury. It is possible that this move known that with the Catholic population of the To attend Mass on Sunday these families was facilitated by a change in the law which gave area approaching 600, the tiny chapel was rapidly state funding to Catholic schools for the first walked to the already established parishes becoming inadequate. time. At this time the parish was being served of Weybridge, Kingston or North Hyde (now by the priest from North Hyde (Heston) – Father Heston). As demand grew Father Hodgson, and Mooney. later Father McDonnell, came across the river “ All the world from Weybridge on Sunday to say Mass at the The Jesuit Connection home of Mr Hurley of number 2 Multiply Place. The first known Jesuit connection with Around 1850 a school teacher, Mr George is full of Sunbury came around this time through Seymour, came from Weybridge to settle in Beaumont College in Windsor. The college Sunbury with his wife Sarah and son Henry. He housed Jesuit novices until 1861 when they inscape and rented a large cottage on the then Hanworth moved to Manresa House in Roehampton. Road (now Park Road on the edge of the The Society of Jesus, also known as the Jesuits, racecourse). He opened a school for the local founded by St Ignatius of Loyola in 1540, had chance left Catholic children and then allowed Mass to be been entrusted by the bishops to provide Portrait reproduced by kind permission of the National Portrait Gallery. celebrated there on Sundays. spiritual leadership to many of the burgeoning free to act Catholic parishes in England. Education First The Jesuit novices from Beaumont prepared Among the Jesuit novices that came to Sunbury At this time nationally, laws were being the local Catholic children for Confirmation. to teach the children was the Jesuit priest and falls into an passed that required all children between the It is known that around 1854, fifty to sixty of Victorian poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. While ages of five and ten to attend school and most these children walked to Weybridge (some a novice at Manresa House in Roehampton he order as well children were educated through the church. The bare-footed for lack of shoes) to receive the was appointed Beadle and was responsible for Catholic church, with its hierarchy of diocesan Sacrament. The priest gave them a meal before organising the other novices in their duties. bishops recently restored, prioritised education their walk home. The Jesuits preached to the One of these was the teaching of catechism, as purpose.” of the poor, therefore schools were established Catholic community of Sunbury and one of at Sunbury as well as Brentford, Fulham, for the children of the local population of Irish these, Father Foley, even preached in their Marylebone, Isleworth and Westminster. Catholic migrants before dedicated places of native Gaelic tongue. ― Gerard Manley Hopkins Page 4 Page 5 The Parish and Church of St Ignatius of Loyola Sunbury-on-Thames – 150 Years 1869 - 2019 The Parish and Church of St Ignatius of Loyola Sunbury-on-Thames – 150 Years 1869 - 2019 The Changing Face of Sunbury The Building of the Sunbury Church of St Ignatius of Loyola 1870 “ Their condition with respect to church accommodation is now deplorable. In the present building we can only provide sittings for from 90 to 100 persons, so that a large portion of the congregation is obliged to stand, many even outside the room when the Holy Sacrifice is offered. The temporary This map from the chapel is poor in all respects, with few benches, altar-furniture of the most ordinary kind, bare and Ordnance Survey naked walls, and is in every way unworthy of a mission so near to London.” was created from data collected The Tablet between 1864 and Father J R Browne describing the state of the chapel in Sunbury in a letter to in 1868. 1870. Although the railway station had been built, Multiply Place is still standing nearby. To the north east, Laurel Cottages is clearly marked. Although the adjacent chapel is marked as St Leonard’s, it had already been dedicated to St Ignatius of Loyola. 1895 This map from 1895 shows how Sunbury had grown in 25 years. The railway Detail from the alms-houses behind the church as they are today. Father Browne, along with his mother Mary and sister opened in 1864. St Annabelle, lived in one of the alms-houses – number 108 – before the presbytery was built. Saviour’s Church, the Methodist Chapel, the Overcrowding Art Works, Kempton By the 1860s The Catholic Mission in Sunbury build a new dedicated church. In a letter to The Park Racecourse and was well established, but for the burgeoning Tablet he appealed for funds, declaring that the St Ignatius Church 600 plus Catholic population of Sunbury temporary chapel in Laurel Cottages where Mass and school have now the tiny chapel at Laurel Cottages could not was said was “in every way unworthy of a mission all been built. The accommodate most of them for Sunday Mass. so near to London.” Father Browne told The Marriage Register for When Father James Richardson Browne arrived Tablet that the Catholics of Sunbury “are a quiet, the church still has the from Greenwich in 1867, along with his mother steady, hardworking people. They contribute to address of St Ignatius Mary and sister Annabelle, to live at Laurel the utmost of their abilities to the support of the Church as Springfield. Cottages and take over the Mission, one of his mission, and they are doing their very best to first actions was to appeal for the means to assist in the erection of a new church.” Maps reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland. Page 6 Page 7 The Parish and Church of St Ignatius of Loyola Sunbury-on-Thames – 150 Years 1869 - 2019 The Parish and Church of St Ignatius of Loyola Sunbury-on-Thames – 150 Years 1869 - 2019 Land for a new church had already been public office. But long held prejudices meant that secured while Father Francis Blake, the first Catholics were often subject to open hostility. permanent priest to live in the parish, was head of the Mission during the 1850s. A local Raising the Money convert clergyman, Mr Clifford, donated a half Father Browne was clearly a persuasive acre site to build a new church and school man and travelled extensively to secure funds on the main road of Sunbury (then known to build the church. Every donation, large or as Springfield Road). It was not without local small, was recorded.

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