Dennis Williams
Gone but not forgotten
St Peter's Church Broad St
Having been quite complementary to the Quakers and Unitarians on this Thread so far, how about the more common sects....
In 1786 Father Nutt of Edgbaston collected a fund of £312 and built a church in Broad Street. It was dedicated to St. Peter and was designed to look like a factory so that it should not attract too much attention. Thereafter the number of Roman Catholics in the town seems to have increased steadily. Two hundred and eight people from Birmingham itself had been baptized by 1794, and in 1795 the Birmingham Roman Catholic Friendly Society was founded. Nutt died in 1799 and a succession of Franciscans then came over from Baddesley to serve the church. By 1806 the congregation was demanding a second priest. As the Franciscans refused either to give up the mission or to appoint an assistant a new and independent chapel was established in Water Street under a secular priest. At first it was only supported by the eight or nine families who had led the secession from St. Peter's. By 1808 the congregation had grown and the chapel was moved to Shadwell Street. Soon after it became known as St. Chad's. There is said to have been one other centre of Roman Catholicism in the Birmingham area between 1819 and 1822: according to tradition a priest travelling between Baddesley and Birmingham used to stay and say mass occasionally at a Roman Catholic private school in Acock's Green. [A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 7: The City of Birmingham (1964), pp. 397-402]
St. Peter's Church, Nicklin, Phyllis (1953) built in 1786, extended in 1802 and 1825, and demolished in 1969. The photograph was taken in 1953
(1967) when it's tower seems to have been curtailed - any idea when & why?
As the Good Book really does say: "Ask, and it shall be given" ... and so s-o-o-n ... many thanks Aidan ... very interesting indeed ... the Phyllis Nicklin photographs are excellent ... comme d'habitude ...
St Peter's [nice name!] was the second Roman Catholic church erected in Birmingham. The first (Masshouse Lane, 1687) was demolished by "ye rabble of Birmingham" before it was even complete (Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham s v "Masshouse Lane").
Having been quite complementary to the Quakers and Unitarians on this Thread so far, how about the more common sects....
In 1786 Father Nutt of Edgbaston collected a fund of £312 and built a church in Broad Street. It was dedicated to St. Peter and was designed to look like a factory so that it should not attract too much attention. Thereafter the number of Roman Catholics in the town seems to have increased steadily. Two hundred and eight people from Birmingham itself had been baptized by 1794, and in 1795 the Birmingham Roman Catholic Friendly Society was founded. Nutt died in 1799 and a succession of Franciscans then came over from Baddesley to serve the church. By 1806 the congregation was demanding a second priest. As the Franciscans refused either to give up the mission or to appoint an assistant a new and independent chapel was established in Water Street under a secular priest. At first it was only supported by the eight or nine families who had led the secession from St. Peter's. By 1808 the congregation had grown and the chapel was moved to Shadwell Street. Soon after it became known as St. Chad's. There is said to have been one other centre of Roman Catholicism in the Birmingham area between 1819 and 1822: according to tradition a priest travelling between Baddesley and Birmingham used to stay and say mass occasionally at a Roman Catholic private school in Acock's Green. [A History of the County of Warwick: Volume 7: The City of Birmingham (1964), pp. 397-402]
St. Peter's Church, Nicklin, Phyllis (1953) built in 1786, extended in 1802 and 1825, and demolished in 1969. The photograph was taken in 1953
As the Good Book really does say: "Ask, and it shall be given" ... and so s-o-o-n ... many thanks Aidan ... very interesting indeed ... the Phyllis Nicklin photographs are excellent ... comme d'habitude ...
St Peter's [nice name!] was the second Roman Catholic church erected in Birmingham. The first (Masshouse Lane, 1687) was demolished by "ye rabble of Birmingham" before it was even complete (Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham s v "Masshouse Lane").
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