The Mission

There has been a 'Mission' here in Great Eccleston well before 1760. According to Local History reseach:

It was not until the Catholic Relief Act of 1791, that Catholics were allowed to build churches and schools. But there must have been a degree of tolerance in this locality as the first Catholic Church is recorded as being built in 1760, dedicated to Saint Laurence, and serving about 200 Catholics from around Great Eccleston and Saint Michael's. In 1829 a further Catholic Relief Act removed almost all civic disabilities from English Catholics. By this time Saint Laurence's was proving too small, and so the present Church of Saint Mary was built in 1835 and the old church became the parish school of Saint Mary. For a short time there had been a Catholic Boarding School in Great Eccleston, run by Peter Newby, a scholar and a poet (1775 -1778); for some reason he took it elsewhere. But now the parish had its own school, which continues to flourish to this day. [1]

In 1686, in the more propitious days of James II, a chapel was built adjoining Maynes Hall, Little Singleton, and it is possible that about that same time an independent mission was established in the village of Great Eccleston, in a thatched house in the Raikes, though there is no record of a resident until 1701 when the Rev: William Caton arrived.

During the following years, in spite of sporadic outbursts of "No Popery" persecutions, the mission, sometimes without its own priest, appears to have flourished, and in 1784 Bishop Gibson gave Confirmation to 37 persons, with 185 receiving Holy Communion.

In 1760, under the initiative of Richard Leckonby, a chapel, dedicated to St. Lawrence, was built near the old thatched house. Later its accommodation had to be increased by the addition of a gallery, and subsequently it became the school. With the addition of two extensions it still serves that purpose...read more...