Parish History

• A Brief History of the Catholic Church in Suffolk
• The Short History of St Felix Parish
• Our Parish Project
• St. Felix Parish Haverhill – the first Mission held in 1911

A Brief History of the Catholic Church in Suffolk

St. Felix first brought the Catholic Faith to East Anglia following his arrival in Britain in the year 630. He came from Burgundy to Canterbury from where he was sent by St. Honorius to evangelise East Anglia. He died in 646, the first Bishop in our region.

By 1539 there were more than 500 parish churches in Suffolk and more than a dozen religious houses including the great abbey shrine of St. Edmund at Bury. It was at this time that Henry V111 ‘nationalised’ the Church, taking over all the parish churches, pulling down the monasteries and selling off their lands and treasures. He and two of his children than introduced Protestant beliefs and religious services, and these gradually gained acceptance and the support of most people. Those loyal to the Pope and the Mass were a tiny minority, meeting in secret in a handful of great houses around the country as with the Kitsons at Hengrave and the Tasburghs at Bungay. Very few of the missionary priests who trained abroad came to this region, and the number of Catholics stabilised at a very low level.

By the eighteenth century, Catholics were able to build churches so long as they did not look like churches and so long as they did not try to preach openly or convert others – the church at Bury St. Edmunds is one of the earliest in this area. (1791) It was only in 1851 that Catholicism was restored as a form of Christian faith recognised by Parliament, and when England and Wales was divided up into dioceses (all with cathedrals in which there was no great Anglican Cathedral at the time), Suffolk was made part of the diocese of Northampton. By 1900 there were 8 Catholic Parishes in all Suffolk; by 1950 there were 14, and many areas were still without a church. As late as the 1970’s there were still mission priests visiting some parts of the county each month and celebrating Mass in a specially converted bus!

The short history of St. Felix Parish

Haverhill is first heard of as a Pre-Roman settlement due to the finding of Iron Age artefacts in the area. Further Roman remains have been found in Haverhill and surrounding areas. When the Romans left Britain in around 410 AD the history of Haverhill becomes obscure for around 500 years. As it is known that St. Felix evangelised and established a monastery in near by Cambridgeshire (Soham), it is likely that this area had also embraced the Christian faith at this time. However, at the time of the Doomsday Book Haverhill is mentioned with a thriving market. It is known that an eleventh Century church dedicated to St. Mary was situated in the Burton End area of town. By the thirteenth century this had been replaced by the current St. Mary’s Church (now C of E).

During the later Middle Ages, Haverhill prospered, and was featured prominently on 14th and 16th century maps of England. Haverhill was also a minor centre of the woollen industry and became a weaving town, a characteristic it maintained for several centuries.

In the sixteenth century the town continued to flourish. It obtained a royal connection on January 27th 1541, when the parsonage, lands and right to appoint clergy were granted to Henry VIII’s fourth, and recently divorced wife Anne Of Cleves. A further royal connection came when Queen Elizabeth passed through Haverhill in 1568, on her way from Horseheath Hall to Kedington Hall. This was of course the time of the Protestant Reformation when Catholics were forbidden to celebrate or attend Mass under pain of fines, imprisonment or the death penalty. The Protestant Book of Common Prayer later replaced the Mass.

By 1620, Haverhill had become well known as a Puritan town. It produced many leading Puritan preachers such as the Ward family (John, his sons Samuel and Nathaniel and his grandson John). the Faircloughs and the Scanderets. There were several emigrations to America, where Haverhill Massachusetts, was founded in 1640. The Barnardistons of Kedington were leading officers in Cromwell's army, and the whole area supported Parliament against the King in the Civil Wars. Thus the Protestant faith became so well established in the area.

Haverhill today is a fast growing town in Suffolk, nineteen miles south of Cambridge, seventeen north of Sudbury, and fifteen from Newmarket. The first Mass of modern times was offered here by Father Donovan of Kirtling, Newmarket, in the Bell Hotel on the 8th September 1896 and occasionally after that. The London Motor Mission (also known as the Travelling Mission) visited in 1911 when Father B Vaughan SJ (brother of Cardinal Herbert Vaughan) was chased out of the town by a yelling mob! (See story below)

It was only in 1936 that a regular Sunday Mass was celebrated in the home of Mr and Mrs Miller at 114 Withersfield Road, the priest travelling from Newmarket. The population of the town at this time was about 4,500. In 1938 the first Catholic Church was opened in Withersfield Road on the site of the present Horace Eves Close. Older parishioners describe it as ‘the Hut’, indicating a wooden construction dedicated to St. Felix and St. Edmund. The Hall family (not Catholics) who lived at 88 Withersfield Road provided extra seating at the church when too many people arrived! Mr Hall was the Registrar for Births, Marriages and Deaths so had some benches he was able to loan on Sundays.

During World War 2 Father Gerald Flanagan was appointed as the first resident priest, but after the war it was again served from Newmarket. When the Augustinian Friars returned to their priory in Clare, Suffolk in the 1950’s (it had been looted and destroyed at the Reformation), Father Twomey, OSA took over responsibility for the district. He could see that the chapel was fast becoming too small for the growing Catholic community and started to raise funds to build a replacement. By this time the population was approaching 20,000 with industries and new homes being set up to house the London overspill after the war. At this time the diocese appointed Father B Hindle and the new church project became focussed on the site in Princess Way on the Parkway estate. It was planned to first build a hall, which would serve as a church in the immediate future, and later to build a church and presbytery on the site. The hall, which has become the current church, was a Stafford Concrete Unit structure, measuring 40’ x 60’. The new church was opened in 1965 and was classed as a temporary building!

The town has continued to grow over the intervening years, and once again our church is too small for our needs. Vast new housing estates have been built in the last ten years which means that our parish is largely made up of young parents with children and also recent immigrants who have found jobs in local factories or in the National Health Service.
They are not the people who have spare money to put towards a new church.  

Our Parish Project

In 2005 a Parish Development Project was set up, chaired by Dr. P. Stephenson. After much research it was decided that a new church was indeed needed. A firm of Architects,
NPS of Norwich was appointed. Meetings were held so that parishioners could have their input on the project. The architects also spent a day in the Primary School listening to the ideas of the children. Plans were drawn up, modified several times; the views of the Diocesan Liturgical Committee sought and finally the plans received the approval of the parish. They were presented to the people of the Parkway Residents’ Association to answer questions and allay any fears they might have. We are currently at the late stages of receiving planning permission.

Our big difficulty is that we do not have sufficient funds to go ahead. The parish has saved £200,000, we have sold assets for a further £250,000 and with the future sale of the current parish house we expect another £100,000. Allowing for fees etc. we have in the region of £500,000. Our new church is expected to cost around £1,000,000. Because the original building is temporary and of a concrete structure we have been advised that it is not worth extending or repairing.

We now have a parish of young, dynamic people alongside our older long-term parishioners, and many fund raising ideas surface from time to time. Dave and Austin recently put on a night of Rock and Roll, which helped raise funds and was greatly enjoyed. We have had concerts performed by our young teenage musicians who sing and play instruments to a high standard. We are currently producing a Recipe Book as a further effort to raise funds and our Philippino community are also having a fund raising day. While all these efforts are greatly appreciated and add not only to our funds but also to our parish family spirit, it is going to take us much too long to get the necessary money unless we can get help from elsewhere. In the meantime we are bursting at the seams!

CAN YOU HELP US? 

top

St. Felix Parish Haverhill – the first Mission held in 1911

A written account by one of the priests present at the time

When I saw the motor chapel it was in the stable yard of the Prince of Wales’ Inn, at Haverhill, Suffolk, where it had proceeded so as to be in a position by Sunday, July 2nd, ready to play its part in the Mission given to non-Catholics of the town. The little town of Haverhill had been well placarded the previous week. Large posters were everywhere in evidence and booming largely these words, “ Know Popery – lectures by Father Bernard Vaughan SJ” ( A play on the words ‘no Popery’ which was a derisive call against Catholics at this time). Leaflets had also been distributed to the man in the street or delivered at each house.

A majority of the town authorities having decided that the Town Hall must not be let to the Missioners, so as to protect the inhabitants from the contagion of Popery, a smaller building was hired for the week in which the lectures were to be given. The action on the part of the authorities has been severely criticised and a lively correspondence is still running in the local paper between the advocates of free speech and their and our opponents. It is, however, consoling to find that Haverhill can still boast of possessing (though the number be small) some fair-minded Englishmen, who refuse to bend the knee to local potentates, and who are ready to stand up for free speech and fair dealing.

It should be mentioned that our advent into the town had been well advertised, as the Kensit horse van with two lecturers and a Protestant Alliance lecturer, the latter on foot, were much in evidence. Our party, unable to find accommodation in the same hotel, were split into two sections, one at each end of the town. The one residing at the “Bell Hotel” had the benefit of listening to the nightly Popery, while the others at the “Rose and Crown” were favoured with tales of escaped nuns and immorality of convents, etc., etc. The small boys in the crowd seemed to enjoy the language employed by the Alliance orator, judging by the frequent peals of laughter that broke on the ear.

Having now prepared the reader, I propose to tell you the simple story of the opening of the Mission. The building used was the Corn Exchange, which holds about three hundred persons. It was well filled by 6.30 on Sunday evening, July 2nd. Occupying the platform were Fathers B Vaughan, S.J., H Vaughan, D.D., C.F. Norgate and Mr. Hickey. Father H.Vaughan
presided and explained that, “Their object in coming to Haverhill was not to run down other religions and try to prove them wrong. If they did that it would not prove theirs to be right, but simply and as clearly as possible to place before them Catholic doctrine, the truth and practices of the Catholic Church.” There was, he said, a question box at the door, and if anyone found any difficulty, if they would put their questions in writing into the box, they would be answered the next evening.

Then came the lecture of the evening. Father Bernard Vaughan, addressing his hearers as “My dear fellow countrymen and countrywomen,” expressed the great pleasure he had in coming to Haverhill. He had no doubt that the people of Haverhill wanted to see, hear and know the truth. He thought. He thought he ought very much to thank them for coming there when they had been earnestly implored not to come. Continuing, he said, “We have come here not to denounce others, but rather to justify ourselves, and because we feel and know that our wares defy competition. We have come here like commercial travellers to exhibit to you our wares, and as we think there are none so good as them, we would be poor specimens of Englishmen if we did not try to get our countrymen to use them. If you do not consider that we have good enough for you, ‘chuck it’; if it is the right thing, hold it” Father Vaughan then spoke about the letting of the Town Hall and said he did not complain because the authorities refused its use to the Catholics, saying, “The Corn Exchange will do for the present; perhaps someday we will have the Town Hall, Parish Church, and the whole thing. England belonged to us once, and we hope it will belong to us again.” He wanted no hankey pankey; he was an Englishman right down to his boots. He could not help being suspicious as to what had been said about the Roman Catholic Church; but if it was anything like it reputed to be, many of those present would have left it long ago.

Father Vaughan next proceeded to deal with the question; whence come we, and whither go we? And in his well known style kept the audience riveted for an hour. He concluded an eloquent discourse, and appealed to his audience to come nightly and listen and not to be misled by what other people said outside. The hymn, “Sweet Saviour bless us ere we go,” concluded our first night’s mission to Haverhill.

What is the effect then of our first night’s opening? “Wait and see.”

Monday evening opened quietly – the questions were; why do Catholics kiss the feet of St. Peter’s statue in Westminster Cathedral? Why are ashes placed on your forehead on Ash Wednesday? Why are Catholics forbidden to read the bible?(they are not!) Mr Hickey answered these.

Father Norgate replied to a question as to the building up of the British Empire in
pre-Reformation days, and contended it had its greatness founded in the days of Alfred and during the days of the signing of the Magna Carta, when England was Roman Catholic. Convent inspection, and the worship of the Virgin Mary were also dealt with in a clear and convincing style. The answering of questions occupied a considerable time.

Faather Bernard Vaughan, in the course of his lecture, said; “One reason why the Roman Catholic Church was so much hated was because she would not hear of compromise. She could not and would not give up the smallest atom of revealed truth.” Again he kept the audience attentive and absolutely in his hand while he unfolded his theme.

At the close of the lecture, the Protestant Alliance speaker asked to be allowed to put oral questions and was informed it was against the rules, it being intended to conduct the Catholic meetings in keeping with the cause they represented.

On leaving the Corn Exchange, the Fathers met a sea of scowling faces. A crowd of 800 persons of all ages and sexes, booing, hissing and yelling, followed them through the streets to their homes. Such a scene had not been seen in Haverhill since the general Election. Tolerant Haverhill!! – You have covered yourself with glory.