ROMAN CATHOLICISM (fn. 1)
Roman Catholicism in the Potteries area remained weak so long as the district continued one of
moorland settlements, its few inhabitants mainly
small farmers and potters. It was only from the end
of the 18th century, when the population of the district was multiplying rapidly, that Roman Catholics
increased in number, helped a few decades later by
the beginning of Irish immigration. That Roman
Catholicism was able to persist in the area as much
as it did during penal times was probably due to the
influence of local gentry such as the Biddulphs of
Biddulph Grange, the Coyneys of Weston Coyney,
and the Draycotts of Paynsley. (fn. 2)
The earliest information about the number of
Roman Catholics in the area after the Reformation is
provided by a return of 1657 which lists 12 at Bucknall, 13 at Cobridge (notably the Bucknalls, a family
of potters), 4 at Hanley (3 of them named Maire,
another family of potters), 3 at Burslem (including
John Daniel, a potter living at the Nook), 2 at
Boothen, and 1 at Meir Heath Furnace; most of the
men were described as potters except at Bucknall
where they were mainly husbandmen. (fn. 3) A return of
1780 lists 134 Roman Catholics in Burslem parish
and 102 in Stoke parish. (fn. 4) Irish immigration into the
Potteries had begun by the 1820's, (fn. 5) and by the early
1850's Roman Catholics in the area probably numbered well over 2,000. (fn. 6) Just over 100 years later the
number is approaching 20,000. (fn. 7)
Cobridge
The first Roman Catholic centre in
the area after the Reformation (fn. 8) was established on
the Biddulph's Rushton Grange estate at Cobridge. (fn. 9)
The grange had belonged to the Cistercians of
Hulton until the dissolution of the abbey in 1538,
and it was bought by the Biddulphs two years later.
The Biddulphs were themselves Catholics certainly
before the end of the 16th century and had Catholic
tenants at the grange by the mid-17th century. (fn. 10)
There is a tradition that the Biddulphs' chaplain
ministered to the victims of the plague at Burslem
in 1647 (fn. 11) and another that by 1688 the grange was
sufficiently well known as a Catholic centre to be
ransacked by a Protestant mob in that year. (fn. 12) Cobridge certainly had a relatively strong Catholic
community by 1657, (fn. 13) and Rushton Grange was a
Mass-centre in the 18th century. (fn. 14) About 1760 the
area received its first resident priest, Thomas Flynn,
who, though he used the chapel at Rushton, (fn. 15) probably lived at Burslem, and in 1773 Confirmation was
administered at the grange by the Vicar Apostolic of
the Midland District. (fn. 16) Flynn left the area in 1776
and three years later was succeeded by John Corne. (fn. 17)
In 1780 Corne began to build a small church on
the hill top east of the grange with money subscribed
by local Catholics. Work was temporarily suspended
owing to the alarm caused by the Gordon Riots, but
the church, 21 ft. by 15 ft. with accommodation for
70 people, was opened in 1781. (fn. 18) A house for the
priest was built to the west. (fn. 19) The chapel at the
grange ceased to be used and by 1820 was 'a mere
thatched shed'. (fn. 20) Richard Prendergast, priest there
from 1795 to 1813, lengthened the church. (fn. 21) In
1816–17 his successor Louis Gerard, of French
emigre family, (fn. 22) more than doubled the size of the
church by adding a nave, 48 ft. by 27 ft., at right
angles to the earlier block which thereby became a
south transept; (fn. 23) he also installed a gallery. This
work, the building of the school in 1821–2, and the
enlargement of the house in 1831 placed the mission,
already very poor, heavily in debt. (fn. 24)
The next priest, Roger O'Higgin (1842–5), increased the seating accommodation of the chapel by
70 places, added a sacristy, and established a parish
library. (fn. 25) Thomas Leith (1851–73) installed gaslighting in the chapel, house, and school during his
first winter at Cobridge, and evening services were
held for the first time; in 1855 he built a new sacristy
and erected Stations of the Cross. (fn. 26) Further alterations were made in 1882, (fn. 27) but the church and house
eventually became unsafe as a result of mining subsidence. They were pulled down in 1936 and the
present church and presbytery opened on the same
site in 1937. (fn. 28) Designed by E. B. Norris of Stafford, (fn. 29)
the church is a brick building with wide nave, passage
aisles, chancel, and baldachino.
In 1822 Bridgettine nuns from Lisbon opened a
convent at Cobridge Cottage situated off Elder Road
between the present Grange Street and Mawdesley
Street. They moved to Stone c. 1828. (fn. 30) The Little
Sisters of the Poor, after two years at Druid's Hall,
Albion Street, Hanley, moved in 1892 to Cobridge
House in Cobridge Road, the home of the Hales
family in the 18th and 19th centuries. The nuns
bought the house in 1899 and replaced it by the
present St. Augustine's Home, built in 1902–3 and
extended in 1911 and later. There is now accommodation for about 100 old people at the home. (fn. 31)
At first the Cobridge priest served a very wide
area covering Leek, Crewe, Market Drayton, Ashley,
and Newcastle (fn. 32) as well as the Potteries with its
rapidly growing population. The gradual establishment of new missions reduced his responsibilities,
but in 1827 he could still describe his mission as 'one
of the most extensive and in the greatest want . . .
about 1,000 souls dispersed in 6 towns and above 20
villages'. (fn. 33) By this time, however, the southern part
of the Potteries and Newcastle had become part of a
new mission centred on Longton. The number served
from the Cobridge church was estimated at some
1,300 in the early 1850's, (fn. 34) and the average attendance at Sunday Mass there early in 1851 was 600. (fn. 35)
The missions founded at Tunstall and Hanley in the
1850's removed about 1,000 people from the charge
of the Cobridge priest, (fn. 36) while the transfer of about
1,500 to the care of the priest of the new mission of
Burslem in 1895 reduced the Cobridge mission to
about 350. It now (1960) numbers just under 900. (fn. 37)
Longton
A community of Benedictine nuns
exiled from Ghent were settled at Caverswall in 1811
by Walter Hill Coyney of Weston Coyney and his
Roman Catholic wife Mary. The nuns opened their
chapel for public services and in 1812 their chaplain
started a Mass-centre at Normacot. In 1819 he
opened a small church dedicated to St. Gregory in
the Greendock area of Longton. (fn. 38) The brick building
in a simple Gothic style still stands between Gregory
and Griffin Streets. (fn. 39) The mission was served from
Caverswall and Cresswell until 1822 when a resident
priest was appointed to St. Gregory's. (fn. 40) In 1835 'a
low pinnacled tower' and a presbytery, and in 1850
a Lady chapel were added. (fn. 41) The present church of
St. Gregory in Heathcote Road was built in 1868–9 (fn. 42)
and at its opening Bishop Ullathorne is said to have
declared that it should prove 'a great boon to the
poor Catholics in this dreary town of sin and mud'. (fn. 43)
The church, designed by E. W. Pugin, is a tall redbrick Gothic building with blue-brick bands and
stone dressings. It consists of an aisled and clerestoried nave, with a west gallery and vestibule, and
a high-vaulted chancel. Externally the five-sided
east end is roofed in a series of small gables with
carved figures standing between them. The windows
contain Geometrical tracery, and there is a large rose
window at the west end of the nave. The presbytery
was built on to the church in 1880. (fn. 44) The first church
is used as the parish hall; the upper part of the tower
has been removed.
A Mass-centre served from St. Gregory's was
opened at the Newstead council school in 1958 and
transferred to the new Roman Catholic infants'
school in 1959. (fn. 45)
A small community of Dominican nuns under
Mother Margaret Hallahan opened a convent at the
Foley between Longton and Fenton early in 1851.
On the expiry of the lease in 1854 the convent was
moved to Stoke. (fn. 46) The Sisters of Charity of St.
Paul opened the present St. Gregory's Convent in
Trentham Road in 1932. (fn. 47)
On the last Sunday of March 1851 260 people
heard Mass at St. Gregory's. (fn. 48) The Roman Catholic
population of the mission was about 2,000 in 1896 (fn. 49)
and had doubled some 30 years later. (fn. 50) It is now
about 3,000, (fn. 51) Meir having been taken out of the
parish in 1934.
Stoke
The mission at Stoke was founded in 1838
by the priest at Longton, who in that year began to
say Mass at a house in Whieldon Road occupied by
a Mr. Maguire. (fn. 52) In 1841 the Mass-centre was moved
to a joiner's shop in Liverpool Road, (fn. 53) and this was
replaced by a chapel built in 1843 in Back Glebe
Street (otherwise Rome Street) and dedicated to St.
Peter's Chains. (fn. 54) The chapel continued to be served
from Longton until the appointment of a resident
priest in 1850. (fn. 55) The building being poor and inadequate, the congregation bought a new site on Cliff
Bank in 1852. (fn. 56) On condition that a church should
be built there this land was offered in the same year
to the Dominican nuns who were looking for a site
in the Potteries for a new convent and who themselves acquired some of the adjoining land in 1854. (fn. 57)
Work began on the new church and convent in 1856
and with their opening in the following year the old
chapel was sold. (fn. 58) The new church, dedicated to Our
Lady of the Angels and St. Peter in Chains, was
designed by Joseph and Charles Hansom and is an
aisled Gothic building of variegated brick to which
the chancel was added in 1884–5. (fn. 59) The Stations of
the Cross from Belgium were given in 1865 by
Dr. James Northcote, priest-in-charge 1857–60 and
1881–1907, (fn. 60) and the organ was erected in 1905 to
commemorate the golden jubilee of his priesthood. (fn. 61)
The Dominican convent and girls' school in Hartshill Road originally occupied a single wing of about
half the present frontage and the building below the
church (later the presbytery). (fn. 62) The west front was
added in 1864–5 to house first a boarding-school
and from 1869 St. Margaret's Home for Incurables,
which the nuns ran in addition to their extensive
educational and parochial work. (fn. 63) The convent was
raised to the rank of a priory in 1866. (fn. 64) The choir and
chapter-room were built in 1884–5. (fn. 65) Cliffville, a
house adjoining the convent property, was acquired
in 1922; the senior part of the school was then moved
there, followed by the junior part in 1929. (fn. 66)
The average attendance at Mass in the Stoke
church on Sundays in 1850–1 was 144. (fn. 67) The
Roman Catholic population served by the priest at
Stoke was estimated in 1852 as 'upwards of 500
souls', the previously rapid increase being checked
by 'the very small and wretched accommodation'
afforded by the existing chapel. (fn. 68) The population
attached to the Church of Our Lady of the Angels
in the late 1950's was about 2,300, (fn. 69) Fenton and
Trent Vale having become separate parishes (see
below).
Tunstall
The Tunstall mission, the first to
be started from Cobridge and covering Tunstall,
Goldenhill, Red Street, Kidsgrove, and Norton-inthe-Moors, was founded in 1853 with a school-chapel
in Plex Street dedicated to St. Mary. It continued
to be served from Cobridge until 1854 when it received its own resident priest. (fn. 70) The presbytery at
first adjoined the chapel (fn. 71) but was later moved to
a house in Chatterley Road opposite the end of
Plex Street, 'a commodious residence with well laidout grounds', 'castellated walls and strong heavily
studded gateways'; the site is now occupied by the
Cottage Hotel built in 1875. (fn. 72) A new church of St.
Mary and a presbytery were erected in Sun Street
(now St. Aidan's Street) in 1869 (fn. 73) and remained in
use until 1930 when the present church of the Sacred
Heart in Queen's Avenue, begun in 1925, was
opened. (fn. 74) The Sun Street church was then used as a
Sunday school but was sold in 1934 and now houses
the main workshop of Taylor's Garage; (fn. 75) the Plex
Street chapel is now part of the works of the Staffordshire Tea Set Company. Although the architect of
the new church of the Sacred Heart was originally
J. S. Brocklesby, it was completed by Fr. P. J.
Ryan, parish priest 1903–51, who used unemployed
parishioners on the building. Of Derbyshire granite
and roofed under a series of copper-covered domes,
the church is in the Romanesque style and consists
of campanile with one bell, north-west tower, clerestoried nave, aisles with side chapels, and apsidal
chancel with ambulatory. It is built on a raft foundation to avoid the danger of subsidence. The stained
glass, the bench carvings, and some of the ironwork
were executed by amateur craftsmen among the
parishioners, and the church also contains many
furnishings bought abroad by Fr. Ryan. A building
in The Boulevard has been acquired as a parish hall
and named the Ryan Hall in memory of Fr. Ryan. (fn. 76)
A Mass-centre, opened at the primary school,
Chell Heath, in 1951, is served from the Sacred Heart
Church. (fn. 77)
There were some 300 Roman Catholics in the extensive area served by the new mission in 1854, (fn. 78)
and by the end of the century there were over 1,400
in the Tunstall mission, (fn. 79) by then considerably reduced in size by the detachment of Goldenhill and
the northern area. The Roman Catholic population
is now nearly 2,500. (fn. 80)
Hanley
The priest at Cobridge bought land in
Lower Foundry Street, Hanley, in 1857 where in
1860 the church of St. Mary and St. Patrick was
opened by William Molloy, Hanley's first resident
priest. (fn. 81) In the meantime the Cobridge priest had
occasionally been saying Mass in a loft over Bath and
Poole's carriage-works opposite. (fn. 82) The presbytery,
however, was built on land between Jasper Street
and Regent Street where it was intended to build
a new church also, but the poverty of the mission
delayed this work for some 30 years. Finally in 1889–
91 the present church of the Sacred Heart was built
there; (fn. 83) it was consecrated in 1911. (fn. 84) Built in a
Gothic style of brick with stone dressings the church
has a clerestoried nave, wide aisles, an apsidal chancel,
and a west turret with a bell. (fn. 85) The architect was
originally H. V. Krolow of St. Helen's and Liverpool, but after his resignation the work was taken
over by R. Scrivener and Sons of Hanley. (fn. 86) The
church in Lower Foundry Street continued in occasional use until its sale c. 1940; (fn. 87) it is now (1960)
used as a warehouse.
It was originally intended that there should be a
convent to the east of the Sacred Heart Church, (fn. 88) but
the only convent ever established in the parish was
that opened by the Little Sisters of the Poor at
Druid's Hall, Albion Street, in 1890 with a home
for the aged attached. In 1892, however, the sisters
moved to Cobridge House. (fn. 89)
At its foundation the Hanley mission had a population probably of about 1,000 (fn. 90) and of some 3,300 by
the end of the century. (fn. 91) Despite the separation of
Birches Head and Abbey Hulton in 1923, the Sacred
Heart parish had a population of some 4,500 in
1929. (fn. 92) With the resettlement of many Hanley people
in new parts of the city in recent years the number
has dropped to about 1,800. (fn. 93) As there are a number
of East European refugees in the city, Mass has been
celebrated in the Ukrainian rite on frequent Sundays
since c. 1953. (fn. 94)
Smallthorne
A chapel was opened at St.
Mary's Roman Catholic school in Queen Street (now
Brierley Street), Smallthorne, in 1875. (fn. 95) It was
served from St. Peter's, Cobridge, until 1895 when
it was transferred to the new Burslem mission. (fn. 96) The
present school-church was built in 1905 (fn. 97) and enlarged in 1934. (fn. 98) There has been a resident priest
since 1923 and the Roman Catholic population of the
parish has remained at about 600 since the late
1920's. (fn. 99)
Goldenhill
The priest at Tunstall opened a
school-chapel dedicated to St. Joseph in John Street
(now Brakespeare Street), Goldenhill, in 1871. (fn. 100)
Goldenhill, including Kidsgrove and Biddulph, became an independent mission with its own priest in
1882, and in the following year an extension at the
north end of the school building was opened as a
separate church. (fn. 101) The present church of St. Joseph
in High Street at the southern end of Goldenhill
was built in 1951–3 with a presbytery adjoining, on
land bought before the Second World War; the
architect was Cecil Barker then of the firm of Wood,
Goldstraw and Yorath, Tunstall. (fn. 102) The church is
built of brick in a modern style and has a low clerestoried nave, passage aisles, and a chancel. At the
entrance end of the nave is a domed tower with
round-headed windows at the belfry stage where tall
stone crosses are incorporated. Internally the pulpit
and the piers supporting the nave arcade are built
of small unplastered bricks.
The Roman Catholic population of the mission
was some 600 by the end of the century, (fn. 103) and is now
just over 900. (fn. 104) Kidsgrove was detached in 1893 and
Biddulph in 1956. (fn. 105)
Fenton
A Mass-centre was opened in the infants'
school in Havelock Street (now Masterson Street) in
1885 and served from Stoke until the appointment
of a resident priest in 1922. (fn. 106) The present church of
Our Lady of Perpetual Succour in Masterson Street
was opened in 1923. (fn. 107) It is a low brick building designed by E. B. Norris of Stafford (fn. 108) and consists of
nave, chancel, aisles, and two sacristies.
The Roman Catholic population was estimated as
1,200 in the 1920's and has altered little since. (fn. 109)
Burslem
A mission including Burslem, Smallthorne, and Wolstanton was formed out of the Cobridge mission in 1895 with the assistant priest from
Cobridge as resident priest. (fn. 110) At first Mass was said
at the Hill Top Pottery in Liverpool Road (now
Westport Road), (fn. 111) but in 1897–8 a building was
erected in Hall Street containing a church dedicated
to St. Joseph on the upper floor and a school on the
lower. (fn. 112) The presbytery in Hall Street was built in
1903. (fn. 113) The present church of St. Joseph was built
on an adjoining site in 1925–7. (fn. 114) Designed in a
Romanesque style by J. S. Brocklesby, (fn. 115) it is of red
and purple brick with campanile, small north-west
tower, nave, passage aisles, transepts, and apsidal
chancel. The decoration of the ceiling and the work
for the stained glass windows were carried out by
the young people of the parish under the guidance
of Gordon Forsyth, director of the Burslem school
of Art; his daughter Maura painted most of the
murals. (fn. 116) The Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace opened
their present convent in Hall Street in 1926. (fn. 117) The
new mission had a population of some 1,500 in 1895, (fn. 118)
but Smallthorne became a separate parish in 1923
and Wolstanton in 1927. (fn. 119) The Roman Catholic
population of St. Joseph's parish is now (1960) 850. (fn. 120)
Birches Head
A mission was started at Birches
Head in 1915 by the parish priest of Hanley who
then opened a chapel dedicated to St. George on the
upper floor of a new building between Boulton Street
and Gibbins Street, the ground floor being used as a
school. (fn. 121) The chapel was temporarily closed for a
period before 1918 but was otherwise served from
Hanley until 1923 when a resident priest was appointed. The present church of St. George and St.
Martin was built on an adjoining site in 1927–8. Designed by E. B. Norris of Stafford in the Romanesque
style, it has nave, aisles, chancel, and a bell-cote
containing one bell.
The Roman Catholic population was 1,100 in 1929
and is now some 1,200, new parishes having been
created at Abbey Hulton and Bentilee.
Packmoor
In 1920 the priest at Goldenhill
opened a Mass-centre at Packmoor in a hut bought
from the army camp at Rugeley, and for some years
it was served by the chaplains to the Little Sisters of
the Poor at Cobridge. (fn. 122) In 1932 the priest at Goldenhill bought a plot of ground in Bull Lane, Lane Ends,
and built the present brick church of St. Patrick
there, designing it himself and using much local
voluntary labour. (fn. 123) The church was opened in 1935
and served from Goldenhill until 1956 when it was
attached to the new parish of the English Martyrs,
Biddulph, itself founded from Goldenhill in 1952. (fn. 124)
There were over 150 Roman Catholics attached to
St. Patrick's in the late 1950's. (fn. 125)
Trent Vale
A church dedicated to St. Teresa
of the Child Jesus was erected in Stone Road, Trent
Vale, in 1928 by the newly opened Michelin Tyre
factory. At first served by a French priest, it soon
passed into the care of the parish priest at Stoke;
a resident priest was appointed in 1935. (fn. 126) After considerable extensions by Messrs. Sandy and Norris of
Stafford in 1956, the church was reopened and consecrated in September of that year. It is of red brick
with nave, transepts, chancel, and campanile. There
are now (1960) some 1,100 Roman Catholics in the
Trent Vale parish.
The Irish Christian Brothers have had a house at
Trent Vale since 1932 with a boys' grammar school
attached. (fn. 127)
Meir
In 1934 the priest at Longton bought a house
called 'Highfields' in Sandon Road, Meir, with the
land attached, and a resident priest was appointed. (fn. 128)
A church dedicated to St. Augustine of Canterbury
was opened at Christmas 1934 in the converted
stable block, and the house has remained the presbytery since then. The hall of the new school was used
as a church from 1937 until 1949 when the original
church building, extended by the addition of a
Nissen hut, was reopened as the church. The present
church, built of pale yellow brick and designed by
Messrs. Sandy and Norris of Stafford, was opened
in 1957. The Roman Catholic population of St.
Augustine's parish is 1,200.
Abbey Hulton
The Church of Our Lady and
St. Benedict in Abbey Lane was built in 1937–8 by
the parish priest at Birches Head. (fn. 129) The area became
a separate parish in 1941 and has a Roman Catholic
population of over 1,300. Bentilee became a separate
parish in 1956. A Mass-centre, opened at the Greenway Inn, Baddeley Green, in 1958, is served by the
parish priest at Abbey Hulton.
Bentilee
A Mass-centre was opened by the
parish priest of Abbey Hulton in the Clowes Community Hall on the Bentilee housing estate in 1956. (fn. 130)
The area received its own priest in the same year and
became the parish of St. Maria Goretti. A church
was begun in 1959. The Roman Catholic population
of the parish is 450.