The Church in Weoley Castle

A brief history of the church in Weoley Castle
Some pictures of the church

A brief history of the Parish or Our Lady and Saint Rose of Lima

The creation of the parish of Our Lady and St Rose of Lima, Weoley Castle, was a direct result of the development of Weoley Castle housing estate by Birmingham City Council in the inter-war years.

The site of the estate, which was to be a new home for families cleared from the slums of the city, was purchased for development in 1929. Four years later, in January 1933, a meeting was held in Princethorpe Road Council School in order to organise a new parish for the Catholic residents of Weoley Castle, many of whom had moved out of the city from Ladywood and from the parish of St. Peter’s, Broad Street. Convened by Father W. P. Bull of St. Edward’s, Selly Park, and supported by the SVP Conference of St. Edward’s parish, it was decided to hire a bus in order to transport Catholic children from Weoley Castle to St. Edward’s school in Raddlebarn Road, Selly Park. Furthermore, from April of that year, Father W. F. Gardner, the first priest of the fledgling parish, began to say Mass each Sunday in the council school in Princethorpe Road in Weoley Castle.

In September 1933, the foundation stone of a Catholic parish hall was laid in Weoley Park Road and the new building was in use as a Mass centre from Christmas 1933. The site had been donated by Colonel and Mrs. F. Smith, who also gave the site for a parish school in Gregory Avenue, plus a donation of £2,000, a sum that helped to cover the £1,800 needed to build the new parish hall.

Significantly, the Smiths were not Catholics, but they were wealthy and well-disposed, and were indebted to Father Gardner who had been most supportive during their daughter’s ill health and untimely death from tuberculosis. As a tribute to its benefactors, the new parish was named after Saint Rose of Lima, an unusual patron saint for an English parish, this being the first name of the Smith’s daughter, Rhoda (the Greek for Rose).

To this day, no other parish church in the United Kingdom is dedicated to Saint Rose.

The rapid development of the parish continued apace. In October 1935, the building of a new and substantial school for more than 200 children commenced. Completed in 1936 at a cost of more than £6,000, the formal opening of the school in September ended the practice of bussing local children to schools in the adjoining parishes of St. Edward’s, Selly Park, and Ss. Joseph and Helen, Kings Norton. The new school was run by the Holy Child Sisters and its first headmistress was the capable, not to say formidable, Mother Maria Mercedes. Having already outgrown the parish hall in Weoley Park Road, the growing congregation was able to make use of the school hall as a temporary chapel, the hall being equipped with a sanctuary and sacristies. To complete the parochial infrastructure, work on a presbytery commenced in 1938 and was completed in 1940 (the first parish priest, Father Gardner, had been obliged to live in a local convent and, later, in private lodgings in the parish).

After the opening of the school, Father Gardner was replaced by Canon Hodgson (1938-41), whose successors were Father George Adams (1941-47), Father Guy Colman (1947-52), Father Charles O’Reilly (1952-1988), Father Gerard Kelly (1988-2000), Father Andrew Foster (2000-8), Father David Standen (2008-9) and, currently, Father Patrick Udoma (2009-present).

Despite the remarkable growth of the parish in its first twenty years, the need for a proper parish church was keenly felt. However, with the clearing of the parish debt in 1951, moves were made to remedy the deficiency and, in February 1952, Archbishop Joseph Masterson donated £200 towards the new church building fund at a parish bazaar. This event inaugurated several years of strenuous fundraising involving many outdoor collections. Although Father O’Reilly had in mind ‘a small church’ costing in the region of £50,000 and seating around 350, the new church, which was built adjacent to the school, transpired to be a much grander project. Built to accommodate nearly 500, it was designed by Adrian Gilbert Scott, one of the most famous architects of his day (in fact, at the time of its construction it was the only example of his work in the Midlands). Built of expensive Brockley brick and of several varieties of stone quarried near Banbury, and Italian marble, many of its wooden fixtures and fittings were of Burma teak and the cost of its completion eventually ran to nearly £75,000—a far cry from the early parish hall on Weoley Park Road. However, early visitors were suitably impressed, one remarking how the church had been ‘designed to look attractive from every angle’ and how, situated ‘at a corner of a tree-lined village green’ it possessed ‘something of the spirit of old England’.

The foundation stone was laid on 18th July 1959, and the new church was solemnly blessed by Archbishop Francis Grimshaw on Whit Monday, 1961.

Concurrent to this period, it should be remembered that in 1954 Mass was also celebrated by Father O’Reilly at Adams Hill School, Bartley Green, prior to his founding St. Peter’s parish in that district.

Despite its modest beginnings and limited means, since 1933 the parish of Our Lady and Saint Rose of Lima, Weoley Castle, has been the home of a vibrant Catholic community, recently enriched by an infusion of parishioners from Africa, India and the Philippines. In addition to maintaining a thriving and successful Catholic school, it has produced several vocations to the priesthood, and a number of Catholic organisations (including an SVP conference and a branch of the Legion of Mary) have all taken root in the parish; furthermore, events such as parish dances, pilgrimages and the summer and Christmas fairs remain popular fixtures in the parish calendar. Over the decades, the success of these and similar events has financed the building of a new parish hall and the redemption of what was once a vast building debt. These achievements mark the perseverance, generosity and faith of generations of parishioners in Weoley Castle.

With thanks to Michael Snape and Bernard Cooper

Drawings and plans

The original drawings and plans of the Church, including all of its internal structures, furnishings and décor, are held in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. No other copies are known to exist. Should you wish to view any of the Church’s extensive drawings and plans, please contact:

The Archivist
British Architectural Library
Drawings and Archives Collections
Victoria & Albert Museum
Cromwell Road
London SW7 2RL
Telephone: 0207 307 3615

or view the Library’s online catalogue at their website: www.architecture.com.

Viewings are only by appointment (on Tuesdays to Fridays) at the Library’s viewing offices, located at RIBA Enterprises, Discovery House (Basement), 28–42 Banner Street, London EC1Y 8QE.

Photographic copies of any drawings may be ordered at the time of viewing for an appropriate fee.

Article prepared by Bernard Cooper