Bishop's sermon stirred up religious fervour!

THE history of St Augustine's Church all started when discussions took place in 1895 and 1896 about a new mission for the Catholic Church in the Lowerhouse area.

In 1897 a terraced house at 10 Kiddrow Lane was used for Mass and Benediction. The congregation had to kneel on the bare floors. There was a weekly collection which amounted to 13 shillings (65 pence) and this helped to pay for the Mission which was at this time known as St Vincent's.

Permission to build a school at the same time was given by the Bishop of Salford and so a school/chapel was built starting in the summer of 1897 and costing about £1,700. The chapel would be over the school and would seat about 200 people.

St Augustine's Roman Catholic Church at Lowerhouse commenced as a Mission Church. It was officially opened on Sunday, May 8, 1898 by Bishop Bilsborrow of Manchester (Salford). The service was conducted by the Reverend Father Harrison.

Bishop Bilsborrow in his address was standing for no nonsense and was determined to call a spade a spade. Surprisingly he said that on this supposedly important occasion there were no reasons why the Catholics of the neighbourhood should rejoice. Previously they had been severely inconvenienced through having no church and what was worse their children had been practically deprived of the priceless gift of a Catholic education! The Bishop continued that from now on they would have a school as well as a church and these children would be taught the same truths that the Lord taught while upon earth.

The Bishop then proceeded to reel off a whole host of statistics about numbers of priests etc., to prove that the Roman Catholic Church was flourishing. One of his statistics quoted that at the present time (1898) in England and Wales there were one Catholic Arch-Bishop, 17 Bishops, 2,637 priests and about half a million Catholics.

The Bishop was on fire to air his knowledge of all the facts and figures and he preached at great length and concluded this topic with these words: "He did not mention these figures in a spirit of boastfulness, but of thankfulness." However the congregation who must by now have been tiring of the statistics must have wondered about his last sentence when he added that: "To minds unbiased and unclouded by ignorance, there could be no doubt that they (Roman Catholics) were growing both in numbers and social position." The Bishop by now was in full flow and he was not to be denied. He proceeded to give a long account of the prejudices of the Protestants against the Catholic Church and how wrong the Protestants were. Fiery stuff from Bishop Bilsborrow -- one shudders to think what might ensue if such a sermon was given today.

All this information is taken from an article in "The Burnley Gazette" (May 11, 1898) and you can tell that the reporter was totally mesmerised by the Bishop's words because he gives no details about the church itself.

As a matter of interest one of the chief benefactors to the church was Alice Mary Towneley but at this time she was Lady O'Hagan. She gave a chalice, a ciborium (a chalice shaped vessel which holds the Sacramental bread for Communion) and a statue of Our Lady.

Although the congregation was small at first this soon changed as the Industrial Revolution had really taken a grip of Burnley by the 1890s. The growth in cotton manufacturing was so great that the mill owners were crying out for workers and so Burnley including Rosegrove and Lowerhouse was swamped with men and their families looking for work. Quite a number of these families would be Catholic. However at this time the parish was still too poor to support a priest and so the church became a chapel of ease to St Mary Magdalene's at Gannow.

In 1922 the present day presbytery on Lowerhouse Lane was built costing £2,200.

In 1960 money was raised to build a new church to replace the one constructed in 1898. The existing church by this time was in poor condition and was also too small, particularly since the building of the Palace House estate. The new church was built by the Howarth Construction Co Ltd, of Burnley, just off Lowerhouse Lane next to Hordley Street and it was the first Catholic church to be built in Burnley for many decades. It was designed by Rawtenstall architect, Peter R Nuttall. The church provided accommodation for 300 worshippers and cost £31,000 to build.

The foundation stone was laid by the Vicar General of the Salford Diocese, the Rt Rev Monsignor Anthony McNulty on Saturday, October 28, 1961. At the stone laying ceremony, a cylinder containing a written document and a 1961 silver coin were cemented into the cavity near the foundation stone in the hope that they may be of interest to the historians of the future.

The main entrance porch was divided from the nave by a glazed ornamental hardwood and gilt screen. This screen has now been moved forward to make room for a social centre. Apart from being decorative, the screen allowed the full interior of the church to be seen from the entrance porch and still does in its new position. The external finishes of the church are mellow brick, copper and tiles.

An unusual feature is that paving stones from Coventry Cathedral have been incorporated into the building. These are hexagonal blue paving stones left over during the building of the Cathedral and they have been used for the Baptistry floor. The Baptistry has been moved and presumably the stones are now underneath the new floor for the disabled toilet.

The beautiful Stations of the Cross were transferred from the old church. The tall windows behind the altar are arranged on a vane principle to give a flood of light to the high altar. Although these windows have been re-glazed since they were originally footed.

The church opened on Wednesday, June 19, 1963. The High Mass was celebrated by the Parish Priest, Father Herbert Rigby in the presence of the Bishop of Salford the Rt Rev G A Beck.

On September 24, 1980, the Bishop of Salford, Geoffrey Burke, dedicated St Augustine's Church and at this time the relics of two Martyrs were sealed into the altar.

St Augustine's parish celebrated its centenary in October, 1996.

Parish priests: 1896-1904, Father Peter Notterdam; 1904, Father Michael Cahill; 1905-1908, Father Patrick Joyner; 1908-1914, Served from St Mary Magdalene's; 1915, Father Hermann Bruning; 1915-1918, Father John Aspinall; 1915-1938, Father John Hardman; 1938, Father Francis Diamond; 1938-1946, Father Patrick J Veale; 1946, Father Francis Burney; 1946-1948, Father John Sheahan; 1948-1949, Father Joseph Houston; 1949-1955, Father Patrick Luster; 1955-1971, Father Herbert Rigby; 1971-1986, Father John Groarke; 1986-2000 Father Robert Livesey; 2000, Father Geoffrey Hilton.