The History Our Parish

FOREWORD

In the early 1950s when Bishop George Craven was visiting the parish of Bushey and Oxhey to celebrate the Sacrament of Confirmation, he alighted from his car at the temporary, corrugated tin church in Upper Paddock Road to find a crowd of people assembled outside. He asked a parishioner "Why are all these people waiting outside?" "Because we can’t all get inside", was a prompt reply. "Well we must do something about that," vowed the Bishop. And so he did. He added his voice to those which had been urging for some time that a permanent Catholic church be built on a site already purchased for that purpose at the junction of Merry Hill Road and London Road. That church celebrates its first 25 years in 1984. This booklet is a record of the planning and building of the church, and of its roots which have proved such a strong foundation for the growth of the Catholic community in Bushey and Oxhey.

As is says above this Church history is taken from a booklet written in 1984 by Frances Goss a member of the parish, to celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary of the building of the present church. This text is reproduced by kind permission of Frances Goss, a big thank you also to Bryen Wood of Bushey Museum trust for lending a copy of the booklet.

FINDING THE MEANS

In 1941, Father Rigby’s parish comprised the urban District of Bushey except that part north of Bushey Hall Road and Aldenham Road and then the Ward of Oxhey in the municipal Borough of Watford. He also said Sunday Mass at a private house at Carpenders Park near the Oxhey Lane; indeed, he made a major contribution to the establishment of a separate parish at Carpenders Park, achieved in 1952.

To enable a concerted fund-raising effort, Father Rigby divided his parish into 24 regions’. Volunteer parishioners each took one of these regions and made monthly collections of donations towards the new church fund. in the early fifties permission was received from Westminster for the building of a permanent church on the site purchased some 30 years earlier. The diocese allocated a sum of £12,000 for the project — a little over one quarter of the estimated total cost. The little tin chapel in Upper Paddock Road, which had served the community so well for over three-quarters of a century and which is remembered with great affection by those who worshipped there, was sold to builder J. Gallagher of Merry Hill Road. Proceeds from the sale are recorded as £2,278 15s 0d. A legacy from a parishioner, Mrs Mary Seddon, boosted funds by another £2,047 17s 6d. The hard work of those collectors, and the amazing generosity of those they called on, amassed just over £5,000 and covenants accounted for approx £1,600. A bank loan of £20,000 was negotiated to meet the balance required.

It was not to be expected that such a major project would proceed without some setbacks, but it must have been a tremendous disappointment when, right at the outset, the first plans for the new church submitted to the local authority were rejected Two options were suggested: either to build on a smaller scale than originally proposed, or to acquire more land. In the event it became possible to extend the site by the purchase of adjacent ground, and No. 4 Merry Hill Road was bought as the presbytery. Revised plans were drawn up by Architect Hodson Archard and this time were approved by the planning authorities.

A NEW CHURCH TAKES SHAPE

Building began in July 1958 of the distinctively modern brick and stone building which is now a familiar landmark of the lower end of Bushey High Street. Its uncluttered perspective and spacious aspect identify it as very much a church of its time, though it is traditional in shape and dimensions.

In a booklet commemorating the official opening of the church, Father Rigby refers to the tower as "The Cardinal’s Tower" because Cardinal Godfrey added it to the original plans. According to Father Rigby, the architects’ interpretation of tower is "of noble line and just strength". It houses, in tact, the entrance porch and gallery and. on its exterior, provides a fitting backdrop for the carved stone effigy of the Sacred Heart which, along with the original altar and Baptismal font in the church, is the work of sculptor John Green. The steeply sloping site enabled a crypt to be built which was initially used as a chapel to St Philomena. Father Rigby had a particular devotion to this saint and constantly, with his parishioners, called for her intercession to remove the difficulties in getting his church built. The chapel was a thanksgiving tribute when work was successfully completed.

Building was well under way when the foundation stone was laid on May 2 1959 by His Eminence Cardinal Godfrey. This stone forms part of the south wall of the church next to the sacristy.

TIME FOR CELEBRATION

Work on the church was finished by late 1959 and parishioners were able to attend their first service there on Christmas at midnight Mass. Cardinal Godfrey returned in May the following year for the official opening, and celebrated the occasion with a solemn high Mass. Celebrant was Bishop Craven, who had been such a committed supporter of the Bushey and Oxhey church project

For the next six years Father Rigby established the Catholic community in Bushey in its new home. He is particularly remembered as a devout and spiritual man who concerned himself deeply with theological issues. The Parish newsletters, which he started producing in 1964, reflect this in their discourses on a range of moral and theological issues from the fluoridisation of water and liturgical changes, to Christian unity and community housing. However, the inclusion of these items alongside the news of the weekly pools dividend indicates that his concerns were also practical in the light of the formidable task he was faced with of paying off the parish debt.

In 1965, having spent more than 24 years in the parish (1941-1965) Father Rigby —an energetic and devoted priest’ — retired to a convent in Worthing where he died on the last day of 1978. On the occasion of his Golden Jubilee in the priesthood, in 1977, the parish sent him a telegram of congratulations expressing their warm regard and affection for the priest who had done so much to provide a permanent church for them.

GROWING YEARS

Father Rigby was succeeded by Father Bernard McGuinness Although his ministry at Bushey was a brief one (about 9 months) his influence is still felt today.for it was he who attended the first meeting of all the churches in the area at the start of an ecumenical movement. The open-minded spirit with which he initiated this task has grown and is very much in evidence today in the cooperation and friendship which flourishes between the Christian churches in Bushey.

At about the time that Bushey was building its first permanent Church, Father Eric Chadwick was masterminding a similar project in Clapton, his first parish as priest in charge. He received a ‘phone call on Good Friday from Bishop Casey asking him to take over the parish of Bushey. So in May 1966 he left the fruits of his own labours and took up the charge of Bushey and Oxhey a parish which still had a debt of some £26,000. One of Father Chadwick’s first resolves was to clear that debt in order to make way for the consecration of the church.

Until this time the Catholic community in Bushey had had little social focus, although they came together through Church organisations. Father McGuinness had mooted the idea of a Social Centre but it was in Father Chadwick’s first year in the parish that a parish Social Club got off the ground (in 1966) in leased premises a short distance from the Church in Bushey High Street (at No. 33b). This was to become the venue for many varied functions, from whist drives to mid-summer balls, from a youth club which started in 1969, to St Patrick’s night celebrations. This Social Club contributed many thousands of pounds towards the clearing of the parish debt, apart from making generous donations to charitable institutions. A parish newsletter at the time refers to the hard work Father Mercer, Bushey’s assistant priest at the time, put into building up the social life of the parish through the Social Club, endearing himself to all "by his charming personality and apostolic zeal".

Another scheme to reduce the debt on the Church was a Saturday market which was opened in the crypt in July 1971 and organised by the Women’s Guild. It still functions in 1984 making a valuable contribution to the parish.

But it was not all fundraising: the parish was blessed with remarkable spiritual events too. One such was the ordination of John Wiley by Bishop Mahon in June 1975. Some 30 priests joined in the celebration, which was the first of its kind in the parish —although previously two parishioners, Anthony Potter and Michael Roberts, had also been ordained, but elsewhere.

BUSHEY’S FIRST CATHOLIC SCHOOL

It was during Father Chadwick’s ministry that the first Catholic School in Bushey was built. The necessity for a school had been identified early on but it was not until February 1969 that all obstacles were overcome, and preparation for the building commenced. It opened for registration of children on Tuesday 8 September 1970 and classes were held on the following day after what Father Chadwick described as "many years of prayer and hard endeavour, often frustrating at times ..." A Solemn Blessing and official opening of the new school was celebrated on Sunday 25 April 1971 by Bishop B.C. Butler, Auxiliary of Westminster. The following year the school held its first outside fete which made £265 for the School Fund. ‘Not until then", said founder headmistress Patricia Diamond ‘did we realize how completely the Bushey community had taken the school to its heart." On her retirement in July 1983 Miss Diamond was succeeded by Mr A. Keough.

It was not until January 1972 that a donation of £900 from the Social Club finally paid off the parish debt and the way to the consecration of the new church was clear. The plans which were put in hand for this outstanding event included the re-ordering of the sanctuary in accordance with the liturgical decrees of Vatican Council 2. The architects, experienced in church alterations work, drew up plans to build a new altar at the front of the sanctuary. The stone from the original altar which carried the IHS symbol was incorporated in the new sanctuary floor behind the priest’s chair.

The inscription on the new marble altar LC XC NIKA is taken from ancient inscriptions (in the Catacombs and elsewhere) and are Greek for ‘Jesus Christ Conquers.’ The fish is the ancient Christian sign for Our Lord the Greek for Fish is ICHTHYS of which the letters form the initials of Jesous Chistos Theou Yos Soter meaning Jesus Christ, Son of God, Saviour. The mosaics show that Christ has conquered by the Cross and is the bread of life by which mankind shares in the fruits of that redemption.

The re-ordering of the sanctuary was followed by the interior decoration of the church and then exterior decoration. The work was carried out by specialists in church alterations, Bartlett & Purnell Ltd, and the marble and stonework features of the new sanctuary were executed by SG. West.

CONSECRATION — AT LAST

All work was completed by Consecration Day, 20 September 1977, when His Eminence Cardinal Basil Hume, Archbishop of Westminster, celebrated the Solemn Mass and Service of Consecration, assisted by Father Chadwick.

During the Service of Consecration of the Church and Altar, holy relics were taken in procession around the church and buried below the altar. These were relics of St John Southworth, one of the 40 English martyrs and whose body is interred at Westminster Cathedral.

The altar and the 12 consecration crosses in brass sconces (which are ranged at intervals along the walls of the church as symbols of the 12 Apostles on whom Christ founded his Church), were anointed with chrism. Symbolic fire was lighted on the altar, followed by incensing of the walls of the church and the people congregated there. The paschal candle was lighted, along with the lights before the consecration crosses. Finally the altar was consecrated, clothed, and a special prayer of consecration made. Each year on 24 September the parish celebrates the anniversary of this day by keeping the Solemnity of the dedication of the church and burning lights at the 12 consecration crosses.

During the consecration service, Bene Merenti medals (awarded by the Pope, then Paul VI, for outstanding service to the Church) were presented to two parishioners —Mr Thomas Walsh for his services as steward in the parish, and Irene Offord for her work of religious instruction.

At the time of its consecration, the Bushey church received many gifts from its parishioners. Among these are a magnificent gold vestment donated in memory of James Pyrke which was worn by the Cardinal for the Consecration service; red carpet for the altar from the Women’s Guild, and the consecration crosses from the Social Club. Gifts have continued — a group of ladies replaced the altar servers cassocks; a tabernacle cover was donated to match the gold vestment; an anonymous donor gave a Livingston Burge ‘Chantor’ 2/61 organ; parishioners contributed to the carved wooden stations of the cross. A particularly significant item is the ciborium (the vessel in which consecrated hosts are held) which had been used during the Mass celebrated at Wembley by Pope John Paul II during his visit in May 1982.

BUSHEY & OXHEY PARISH "COMES ALIVE"

Following the retirement in 1978 of the assistant priest, Father Westbrook, Father Harry Turner came to Bushey as parish priest working alongside Father Chadwick during the run-up to the latter’s retirement in the following year. At that time Cardinal Hume paid tribute to "this devoted and loved priest" who had worked for 44 years in the diocese of Westminster. During his time in Bushey Father Chadwick had with diligence, but with great sensitivity, implemented many of the controversial changes to Church custom and practice which Vactican 2 had decreed. In retirement at the house in Merry Hill Road next to the church, which used to serve as a presbytery, he maintains his close links with parishioners and regularly celebrates Mass with them.

Father Turner came to Bushey, his first parish as priest-in-charge, from the All Saints Pastoral Centre in London Colney. He pursued with enthusiasm the programme of renewal already under way in the parish. In particular he took up the document of Vatican Council 2 on the Apostolate of the Laity in which it says "Lay people should, as a matter of course, work hand in hand with their priests in the parish.".

There were already, of course, parish organisations which were doing just that. The Legion of Mary had been started in the early forties in Bushey. Its members have done invaluable work in visiting the sick and housebound, in instruction and other services to the parish, and in extending its census arrangements. The local Conference of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, too, is a long-established parish body which was formed on 31 March 1953. Essentially spiritual in character, its primary object is the personal sanctification of its members through visiting the poor in their homes, the sick, the aged, hospitals, residential establishments, the deaf, dumb and mentally handicapped. When Novenas to Saint Philomena were parish practice, members often led the prayers in the absence of the priest.

The Women’s Guild, formed in 1965, makes a tremendous contribution in many ways to the Parish its members help with fund raising events, social and parish celebrations. They contribute to the quality of worship at the church through cleaning, flower arranging and even on occasion donating furnishings and wardrobe items.

After a visitation to the Parish in 1976, Bishop Butler wrote to comment "I was most impressed with your altar servers". The Guild of St Stephen, as the Altar Servers are known, has grown with the Parish, serving it — literally — with efficiency and loyalty.

The choirs, too traditional and modern are particularly accomplished. They are supported by a guitar (folk) group and wind instruments as well as the traditional organ. The Sisters from the nearby Rosary Priory have been instrumental in building up and maintaining the high standards of liturgical worship which the choirs achieve. They also perform the vital function of instruction classes for the parish.

WORKING TOGETHER

Father Turner’s "blueprint for action", however, sought to extend parishioner involvement even further. First off the ground, in 1979, was a parish accounting group set up under the professional financial guidance of an accountant parishioner. The group achieved particular success with a covenant scheme. During the same year the first steps were taken to establish a Parish Council which meets regularly and which has established an unprecedented process of consultation and collaboration between clergy and laity, and between the various lay associations and enterprises themselves. The Council also devised a strategy, known as the "Come Alive" campaign, in order to meet the challenge of bringing the message of Christ to the world of today more effectively.

In the following five years, from 1979, the lay ministries for the distribution of Holy Communion, and for reading at Mass were established and flourished. Teams of parishioners undertook responsibility for preparing bidding prayers each week and for instituting the programme of preparation for confirmation candidates. Repre-sentatives volunteered to serve on the community Care scheme, an ecumenical undertaking, and the Bushey and Oxhey Council of Churches and the Christian/Jewish group. Youth Encounter Groups, Prayer Groups, Adult Religious Education Sessions: all sprang up as further fruits of the growing church in Bushey and Oxhey Mother Teresa inspired one of the groups, known as the Co-Workers of Mother Teresa, which meets regularly to provide practical backup to the missionary work in the form of bandages and Other necessities.

At the instigation of the Parish Council, arrangements were made to twin’ the Parish of Bushey and Oxhey with that of St Maria Goretti in Allepey. Kerala, S India. Under this arrangement, Bushey gives support to the Indian parish of some 2,000 Catholics by prayer, correspondence and finance.

Having inherited’ a newly consecrated and decorated church, Father Turner was able to concentrate his obligation to the fabric of the church to the refinements The organ and choir were relocated from the gallery to the sanctuary: the Lady Chapel was glass-screened to provide an economic facility for weekday Mass and other devotions; the baptismal font was relocated to the sanctuary and the old baptistry at the back of the church became a repository. Ramps were built at the entrance to accommodate wheelchairs. Modifications became necessary to the tower, which was causing a serious damp problem. The roof of the tower itself was removed and replaced by a parapet roof. Interior improvements also included a new microphone system and a gas central heating system to replace the original underfloor electric system which had become increasingly expensive to run.

AN EXCITING FUTURE

One of Father Turner’s last works in the parish was to put in hand the plans for marking its first 25 years. Early in 1984, after six years in Bushey, he was transferred to Brook Green to take over a much larger parish. He left behind a community that had been greatly influenced and inspired by his zeal and energy, and by his spirituality. His successor, Father Guy Sawyer, takes over Bushey as his first parish at the beginning of a new phase in its history. It is likely to be an equally exciting period as the community continues to grow and to change.

In its 25th birthday year the church will be getting a ‘facelift’ and will be acquiring two hand carved statues, of our Lady and St. John and carved in lime wood to match the existing very beautiful crucifix which they will flank. This commission is being carried out by an eminent local sculptor, Siegfried Pietzsch, who has an international reputation and whose work is to be seen in many churches in the Diocese.

Plans are also being progressed for a permanent Social Centre adjacent to the church which will provide accommodation for the growing parish organisations.

Although this record of Bushey’s first permanent church has been traced through the ministries of its parish priests, it would not be complete without mention of the succession of very distinguished curates who have served the parish during this period. The first was Father Philip Carpenter MA who was the first priest in Bushey who stood outside the door after each Mass to greet parishioners. He was succeeded by Father Christopher Pemberton, well known because of his BBC connections — he left Bushey to go to Westminster Cathedral, then Holy Redeemer, Chelsea, and later to lecture in Rome and Allen Hall on voice production. Father Ralph Brown, JCD, who succeeded him, is now Mgr Ralph Brown, a vicar General of the Archdiocese. Father Prendergast took over from him, followed by Father Leslie Wood. He was succeeded by Father Mercer, whose work, particularly in developing the social consciousness of the parish when he worked alongside Fr McGuinness and Father Chadwick, has already been mentioned. Father Benedict Westbrook, who joined Father Chadwick from 1972-1978, is remembered for the tremendous efforts he made to visit all parishioners regularly in their homes.

ROOTS

Although this booklet specifically celebrates the first 25 years of Bushey and Oxhey’s first permanent Catholic church, this period cannot be separated from the previous 100 years during which a thriving Catholic community grew up in the area — a community which has provided the strong roots and firm foundation of the present church.

The parish of Bushey and Oxhey is claimed by some to be the mother’ church in the area. There is evidence, however, to show that the first efforts to polarise the Catholic community were centred in Watford and came from one Father George Bampfield, founder of the St Andrew’s Institute at Barnet. In a letter to the ‘Tablet" of 21 March 1863, he stated that ‘at Epping and at Watford ... where Mass is said on weekdays, I wish to buy ground and have a Station Chapel. The cost of so opening each Mission need be at first only £300 or even less." The following month, appealing for Catholics in the Watford area to come forward, he wrote in the same journal. "On my first two visits to Watford I discovered only 4 or 5 Catholics; on my third I hit upon the Catholic court in which were several families, but all so poor that I could not find a room sufficiently decent for the celebration of Mass. Since then others of a higher rank, seeing my circular in the papers, have written to me and hope shortly to renew the offering of the Holy Sacrifice in Watford."

By late September of the same year, Father Bampfield had made a significant achievement. He writes (again in the "Tablet) "I scarce know how to record with sufficient thankfulness that the efforts made to open a Mission at Watford have at last, by God’s blessing, proved successful. After many failures, we have been enabled to hire a house in which to celebrate the Holy Mysteries. I. hope to recommence the offering of the Holy Sacrifice, so long interrupted, on Sunday October 11th, the Feast of Our Lady’s Maternity, and in honour of her two-fold Maternity the Mission will be dedicated to the Sacred Heart of her child at Bethlehem and to the brother of the Sacred Heart, the son whom she bore in her painful travail at Calvary. . . The House is in Carey Place, about the centre of the High Street."

The first Mass was duly celebrated on October 11 1863. A reporter recorded the occasion in the "Tablet", claiming that this was the first Mass in the area for three hundred years. Referring to the opening of the Mission he says, "Various attempts have recently been made to procure a room at Watford, but until recently difficulties have arisen through the religious intolerance of the locality. At length, however, through the exertions of Mr Conlon, a Catholic gentleman, a house has been secured and the work commenced. There were above 60 persons present all, with one or two exceptions, being residents, a fact which shows the great necessity for providing church accommodation there." The Catholic Directory of the following year lists for Watford "The Sacred Heart and St John the Evangelist, Carey Place (1863). Served from Waltham Cross."

A Jubilee edition of the West Herts and Watford Observer printed (in 1913) a feature entitled ‘Fifty Years of Catholicism in West Herts" by Dean Keating. The reprinted booklet of this article gives 1863 as the year in which Father Bampfield erected a small wooden chapel in Upper Paddock Road, Bushey, and claims this as the only place of worship for Catholics in Watford and West Herts for the 18 years that followed. Although the extracts from the "Tablet" quoted earlier appear to contradict this, it is certain that the chapel in Upper Paddock Road, the forerunner of Bushey’s present church, was in existence prior to 1887.

Tablets in that chapel show that Father Samuel Swanston ministered there he was rector/priest in charge at Watford in 1883 and he died in 1887. The chapel in Upper Paddock Road was built largely through the generosity of builder Mr Stephen Taprell Holland of Otterspool, a convert to Catholicism (he also endowed and built Holy Rood Church in Watford). The Upper Paddock Road chapel was of humble proportions. Known affectionately as "the little tin church" it is remembered as being cold in winter and hot in summer. It would seem that the chapel was originally served from Barnet, as was the private chapel in the Old House in the Rutts on Bushey Heath which was also available for worship to Catholics in Bushey during this period.

By 1912, however, a resident priest, Father James Ryder, was appointed to Upper Paddock Road — ‘resident’ in this case appears to mean that he lived in ‘digs’ close to the chapel as there was no presbytery. Father Ryder enlarged the chapel and renewed the entrance and he was responsible for purchasing the original site on which the present Church is built, borrowing the money through Archbishop’s House.

In 1924 Father James O’Rafferty, described by parishioners as ‘an ebullient Irishman", took over what was by then regarded as the temporary church in Upper Paddock Road. With great enthusiasm he set about raising funds to pay off the land-purchase debt and have the church building reconstructed and re-roofed (it leaked). He added an entrance porch and installed electricity to replace the paraffin lamps and provide a more efficient heating system. He installed three wooden altars and acquired an organ. Much of the church furniture, linen and accoutrements were refurbished, replaced or purchased for the first time by Father O’Rafferty, and many are still in use in the ‘new’ church the cruifix from the altar is used every Good Friday for the veneration of the Cross; the statue in the Lady Chapel is the one from the old church which had been brought back from Lourdes for the church by Mrs Mount.

One of Father O’Rafferty’s greatest allies in securing the necessary funds for his church was his good friend, singer John McCormack, who promised to match the contributions made by Father O’Rafferty’s parishioners.

Writing in later years to his successor, Father Rigby, just before the present church was built, Father O’Rafferty recalls his reconditioning of Upper Paddock Road and the work he himself put into making the most of what he had. "I varnished and stained the wood interior walls of that church myself. . . I repainted again and again the three altars and their pedestals."

Although he worked so hard to make his temporary church a worthy place of worship, Father O’Rafferty never tired of reminding his congregation that it mattered not at all whether they worshipped in "a bamboo hut in an African swamp or a cathedral". During these years the parish priests continued to live — often very uncomfortably — in ‘digs’, visiting their congregation in their homes to undertake instruction and other functions of this kind. Father O’Rafferty later retired to Ireland where he celebrated his Diamond Jubilee in 1960.

In 1941 Father O’Rafferty was succeeded in Bushey by Father Stephen Rigby, who played a key role in the building of the present, permanent church detailed earlier in this booklet.

That church, as it celebrates its first 25 years, must recognise the tremendous debt of gratitude it owes to the dedication, enterprise. endeavour and generosity of those priests and parishioners of an earlier time whose work and sacrifices have made the present celebration possible.

"I Remember..."

.... I will always remember the lovely parish community of Bushey, for they touched me and I have grown.

Freddie Frost, who worshipped at Upper Paddock Road. He died in 1915 at the age of 20 while on active service with the City of London Rifles.

.... Going to Benediction at the little tin church on Sunday afternoon after playing tennis we young girls were in our tennis things and it was not unknown for tennis balls to go rolling over the floor.

.... Father Rigby asking the sidesmen to escort from his church the parishioner who had loudly voiced his disagreement with the sermon.

.... Tramping over the fields in our Wellington boots and leaving them in the hedge before going into the little tin church.

.... The old stove which heated the church in Upper Paddock Road a huge black monster that had a chimney going up through the middle of the roof.

.... Singing Adeste Fidelis at Christmas in the little tin church that was bursting at the seams. celebrating the first Midnight Mass in the new church — without heating!

.... Mr Stephen Taprell Holland coming to Mass in the little tin church on Sundays in his groom-driven pony and trap. He sat in the front row on the right hand side and we children were amazed when he put a £1 note (a lot of money then) on the plate.

.... When Father Turner received a new Member into our present church one 10 o’clock Mass. The building was bursting with love that day.

.... Father O’Rafferty telling his parishioners it didn’t matter if you were baptised in a bowl or a Bentley (Bentley’ being the famous sculptor who has fashioned the new font at Holy Rood Church).

.... Wonderful mix of anticipation, belonging and contentment orchestrated under Father Turner’.