Building of the Church, Solemn Consecration & Opening Ceremonies
Building of the Church
Until the opening of Our Lady and All Saints in 1884, the catholics of Parbold and Dalton, who numbered about a hundred, belonged to the Wrightington mission. A few attended Saints Peter and Paul, Mawdesley and their burials invariably took place there. A story is told of Mrs. Susanna Ainscough, who died at the age of 94, that when she was very old and her memory somewhat confused, would as when she was young, order the trap to take her to Wrightington for Mass. The services there were few, and in a report to the Bishop in 1855, the priest who served there from 1850 to 1891 wrote “Not registered for marriages, is a private chapel. No Via Crucis, no processions, no organ or music of any description”.
Compare this with the size of the church built at Parbold and the solemnity of its opening and the quality of its embellishments. In doing so, one is compelled to take into consideration the enormous upsurge of English Catholicism in the intervening years. Pope Pius IX completed the longest pontificate in history, and his regard for England was high. He restored its hierarchy in 1850 and chose an Englishman, Monsignor George Talbot, as his Private Secretary.
After the loss of the Temporal Power in 1870, spiritual values were asserted more and more, and the revitalised Church in England was likened to Our Blessed Lord’s Resurrection. Expansion was swift, conversions were numerous and vocations to the religious life reached unprecedented numbers. Within a decade of the opening of the church, the Marquis of Ripon, a future Viceroy of India became a Catholic, Henry Matthews, the first Catholic to be admitted to the Cabinet since Emancipation, was appointed Home Secretary and Sir Charles Russell became Attorney General. A model Tridentine Seminary was established at nearby Up Holland and in 1883 there took place in Liverpool the largest ordination ceremony witnessed in England since the Reformation. There was a preoccupation with active charity and orphanages, refuges and schools for the delinquent mushroomed, and in 1881, that most venerable body, the Broughton Catholic Charitable Society, was unable to find premises large enough to accommodate the numbers wishing to attend its Whit-Tuesday meeting. This was the background against which the church of Our Lady and All Saints was built, and it was built in the triumphalist spirit of the time.
A series of letters relating to the planning, form an excellent narrative:
(1) Bishop O’Reilly to Hugh and Richard Ainscough
Bishop’s House
Liverpool
15 July, 1876
Gentlemen,
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 30th ult. in which you intimate your intention to build and endow a church at Parbold, to be served by the Benedictines, and to thank you for what you propose to do for God’s honour and the good of souls.
I not only give my sanction for what you propose to me, but I pray God to bless you and yours for evermore, abundantly here and eternally hereafter, for your gift. I shall be happy to inspect the plans as soon as they are prepared and to bless the foundations as soon as you are prepared to commence the works.
The church and mission may be served by the ‘Benedictine Fathers as long as the Superiors are able and willing to supply a priest for the work, and serve the mission to the satisfaction of the Bishop.
Again thanking you, and praying God to bless you.
I am, Gentlemen,
Very faithfully yours,
BERNARD, Bishop of Liverpool
(2) Hugh and Richard Ainscough to Abbot Clifton, O.S.B.
Lancaster House
Parbold
August, 1876
Dear and Very Reverend Sir,
We have written to the Bishop of Liverpool for his sanction to build a church at Parbold in the district of Wrightington, and have received from him the enclosed reply. We have secured three statute acres of Freehold land, and intend to build on it a Church, Presbytery, and in all probability schools, and purpose to endow the mission with £100 per annum. We and our families have had a long connection with the Benedictines, indeed our Father and Mother scarcely knew any other Priests: and we should, we feel, be fulfilling their wishes as well as our own, if we can secure that the new Mission be served by the Benedictines.
We now beg formally to offer the Mission to the Benedictines, if you will favour us by accepting it. We wish it to be considered as a foundation for the Benedictines, and will place the property in trust in any names you may mention, on condition that you undertake to provide a Benedictine priest constantly to serve the mission, and will yearly say such Masses as we shall agree upon.
We remain,
Yours faithfully,
HUGH and RICHARD AINSCOUGH
(3) Abbot Burchall, O.S.B. to Abbot Clifton.
Woolton
14 August, 1876
Right Reverend and dear Fr. Provincial,
It is a pleasure to see the spirit of olden times manifested by the Messrs. Ainscough with reference to the proposed new church etc., on the site they have. purchased. I willingly give leave for your accepting the kind offer of these Gentlemen; and may Almighty God reward them, as well here as hereafter, for their generous and pious intentions.
I am, Right Reverend and dear Fr. Provincial,
Your affectionate Confrere,
R. BURCHALL
(4) Abbot Clifton, to Hugh and Richard Ainscough.
Workington , Cumberland
16 August, 1876
Gentlemen,
I beg to acknowledge the receipt of your letter enclosing one of your good Bishop’s which I return, making the formal offer of the new Church and Presbytery you are about to erect at Parbold to the Benedictine Order, to be always served by one of its members. As Provincial of that Order, in my own name and that of my brethren, I thank you for your pious and holy offering which in the name of my Order I accept with the greatest pleasure. And I return you my best and sincerest thanks, not only for the gift, hut for the honour you have paid the Benedictines by making selection of them to serve your church.
It is to few men God gives the means, and at the same time inspires with the design, of doing so great a work for His glory; and my prayer, and that of all those who serve your church, will he that God will always give His blessing to you and your families and descendants, and your undertakings.
Again tendering you my best thanks, I remain Gentlemen,
Yours very faithfully and sincerely,
CUTHBERT V. CLIFTON, Prov. Ebor.
Laying the Foundation Stone
The Wigan Observer of May 11th, 1878 reported
“On Sunday afternoon at three o’clock the foundation stone of a new R.C. Chapel was laid at Parbold by the Bishop of Liverpool, Rt. Rev. Dr. O’Reilly. The chapel is pleasantly situated close to the grounds of Lancaster House, the seat of Mr. Hugh Ainscough — and will be known as Our Lady & All Saints.
There was a very large attendance including Fr. Spencer (Ainsdale), Master of Ceremonies, Dean Cooke (Southport), Fr. Margison (Wrightington), Fr. Nixon (Mawdesley)”.
Edmund Kirby (1838-1920), of Liverpool was architect of the church, which is described as having a fine tall spire with complicated buttress and pinnacle arrangement below and around it. Windows mostly lancets except for a large rose East Window and with short round piers inside. Accommodation is for 400. Parbold Hill with its extensive quarries supplied the stone, almost resembling granite and Mr. B. G. Dean of Wigan was responsible for internal decoration. Although the donors would never disclose how much money was expended, expert calculations have placed it at no less than £12,000.
Unfortunately, before the plans could be prepared, Richard Ainscough died at his home in Mill Lane, Lathom, on July 17th, 1877.
Solemn Consecration & Opening Ceremonies
The church was solemnly consecrated by the Bishop of Leeds, Dr. Robert Cornthwaite, at a private ceremony commencing at 8 a.m. and lasting for four hours, on Wednesday, May 28th, 1884. A choir of twenty Benedictine Fathers from neighbouring missions assisted. Bishop Cornthwaite, born in Preston, was a contemporary of the Ainscough brothers and as Rector of the English College he had been the Roman Agent of the English Benedictines. Bishop O’Reilly of Liverpool was recovering from a severe illness and unable to endure such a long engagement.
The solemn opening took place the following day when Bishop O’Reilly presided at the throne, Bishop Cornthwaite sang the Mass and Bishop Hedley, O.S.B., of Newport, a powerful orator, delivered a sermon that was reported at considerable length.
The text was taken from the 17th chapter of St. John “The glory which Thou hast given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one”.
It was all about man’s relationship with God and the means of salvation, which is offered through Christ. Hence, the Bishop told his hearers, it is our duty to draw all men to the Christian altar. Twenty local clergy, Benedictine and Secular attended and the choir of St. Anne’s Ormskirk, accompanied by an orchestra from Liverpool, performed Haydn’s Imperial (now called the Nelson) Mass.
Despite the generosity and the festivity, the opening did not pass without a touch of acrimony.
In the previous year, 1883, it was decreed that no new missions were to be undertaken without the permission of Rome. Parbold had applied for this but no reply had been received by the opening day.
Since those exchanges of cordiality in the initial correspondence several changes had taken place within the Benedictine administration.
Abbot Anselm O’Gorman had succeeded Abbot Burchall as President-General and Abbot Clifton of Workington had been succeeded as Provincial by Abbot Aidan Hickey of Ormskirk. Abbot O’Gorman was in Rome, probably in the depths of controversy over the role of the religious orders, and had nominated Abbot Hickey to be his delegate at the Parbold ceremonies.
Another series of letters tells us what happened:
(1) Abbot O’Gorman to Fr. Bede Prest O.S.B. of Woolton
Rome
May 27, 1884
I hope Fr. Provincial received my letter and postponed the opening of Parbold. Propaganda has written to Bishop O’Reilly to know if he has any objection to the opening of Parbold.
Considering that Bishop O’Reilly had given his written permission in 1876 and that the Roman authorities disclaimed any knowledge of it in 1884 we must conclude that every age is tormented by its bureaucracy.
But the President-General was unmollified and the following from Abbot Hickey appears to be a reply to a rebuke.
(3)Abbot Hickey to Abbot O’Gorman.
Ormskirk
June 12th, 1884
My memory played me false if we agreed not to open Parbold until I heard from you. On the contrary I was under the impression that we were to go on as we reckoned there would be no trouble. This was the Bishop ‘s advice and I may have confused yours and his. Of this you may be sure: I should never have thought of arranging the opening if I thought it was not according to your wishes. I am nothing if obedient.
(2) Abbot Hickey to Abbot O’Gorman
Ormskirk
May 30, 1884
Your letter came too late for me to postpone the opening of Parbold. It arrived on Sunday and the consecration was fixed for Tuesday. Mr. Ainscough had sent his invitations and about fifty had accepted. He had put up a Marquee or tent for dinner on that day. The opening had been announced in the newspapers, a grand orchestral choir had been engaged, the Bishop of Leeds and Bishop Hedley were coming and I was to dine with them. To postpone the opening would have thoroughly disgusted Mr. Ainscough, caused him a great expense and given great scandal to the Catholics of this part of Lancashire. For all these reasons I concluded to let the thing go on. Besides, on the previous Tuesday, the Bishop of Liverpool came out to consecrate the Bell at Parbold. He then told me what he had heard from Rome and that they wanted to know if he had anything to say about the matter. He had replied that I was acting on his advice in notifying the fact to Rome. I then said: “We had better put off the opening until we hear from Rome”. His answer was: “By no means. It will make no difference. If the answer does not come you can take possession provisionally “. I acted on this advice. The Bishop of Leeds consecrated the church and the Bishop of Liverpool opened it. I trust you will approve of my action, I really was very perplexed. All I consulted gave the same advice and I cannot conceive of any harm. All the same I shall be relieved when I get the answer. I think the Roman authorities can’t make out why we ask their permission as to Parbold. Bishop O’Reilly required me to certify that the property was legally conveyed to us before he gave permission for Consecration.