A LEIGH church has launched an urgent appeal for more cash from parishioners and friends. The need to maintain a Grade 2 listed church building is creating difficulties at St Joseph's RC Church in Bedford (pictured).

Last year bits began to fall from the tower and a loan from the Archdiocese helped to finance repairs costing £37,000.

But the parish had a deficit of £22,436 at the end of 1997 and repairs which will cost about £70,000 are now needed to both the East and West walls.

The Catholic community at Bedford dates back more than 300 years.

At that time Catholics were a persecuted minority and the priest who celebrated mass for them faced trial for treason and a hideous death if found guilty - a fate suffered by Father (later Saint) Ambrose Barlow in 1641.

Mass was often said in a local farmhouse, but in 1779 a chapel was built on the site of one of the present parish halls.

The chapel proved inadequate for the growing Catholic population of the mid-19th century, swelled by an influx of Irish immigrants escaping the potato famine.

The present church was built in 1855 to a design by Mr Joseph Hansom - famous for his horse-drawn cab.

A former chorister, Tom Burke ('The Lancashire Caruso'), achieved fame on both sides of the Atlantic as a tenor singer.

St Joseph's currently attracts between 800 and 1,000 people every weekend.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.