Parishioners fight to save historic listed church

Brindle St Joseph, the second oldest church in the four dioceses of the North West, faces closure later this summer

Parishioners in Lancashire have vowed to fight to keep open their historic church following the decision by Ampleforth Abbey to withdraw its priest in August.

Brindle St Joseph is the second oldest church in the four dioceses of the North West and is listed Grade II*. The church has associations with the Jesuit martyr St Edmund Arrowsmith (1585-1628) and replaced a chapel of 1786 when a graveyard was also established.

St Joseph’s is in a rural location outside Preston at Hoghton and at the heart of a thriving parish with more than 130 people attending the two weekend Masses. There is a primary school and a parish hall that is well used by local groups.

Parishioners met on 11 May to discuss the closure plan. They raised concerns about the potential break up of their tight-knit community and about the lack of consultation. They knew for some months that Ampleforth was planning to withdraw from the parish but thought that the Archdiocese of Liverpool would keep the church open. The archdiocese has said that it does not have the resources or the priests to do so and is planning to merge St Joseph’s parish with St Bede’s, a 10-minute drive away.

A member of St Joseph’s parish committee, Bren Cook, said they are pleading with the Ampleforth Abbey Trust to give them more time to come up with an alternative plan.

“There is a step missing in this process which goes against the spirit of synodality, if not the letter,” said Mr Cook, a retired university lecturer who has been attending St Joseph’s for 30 years. “We are trying to identify solutions that will avoid closing our church and destroying our community.

“At the moment some people walk to Mass, others get lifts but the only way to get to St Bede’s is by car. That will be impossible for a lot of people. Our parishioners are worried about what is going to happen to the graveyard and the war memorial. Seven generations of some families attend St Joseph’s. They are devastated.”

The Abbot of Ampleforth, Robert Igo, announced the closure after Mass on 27 April. He told parishioners that he had asked the parish priest, Fr Raphael, to return to the abbey by the end of August and that pastoral care will be handed over to the Archdiocese of Liverpool.

Abbot Robert continued: “In examining its own resources, both financial and those of personnel, it has become clear to the archdiocese that it is not in a position to take on the financing and management of the buildings at St Joseph’s, Brindle. This means that once Fr Raphael returns to Ampleforth Abbey the parish of St Joseph’s will close.”

St Joseph’s parish committee wrote to the Ampleforth trustees to say they intended to fight the closure plan. The trustees replied saying that they would raise the matter as a matter of urgency with the new Archbishop of Liverpool, John Sherrington following his installation on 27 May.

Ampleforth Abbey Trust owns several properties in the area, besides the church, including the presbytery, a parish hall, and a number of cottages which are rented out.

Acting secretary of the North West Historic Churches Committee, James Crowley expressed serious concern about the decision to close St Joseph’s.

He said: “It seems astonishing that a church which has an association with one of our most important martyrs is set to close. There urgently needs to be a rethink given its historical and architectural significance.”

The forward altar at St Joseph’s is a seventeenth century sideboard which is believed St Edmund Arrowsmith used as an altar to celebrate Mass. St Edmund was betrayed by the son of the landlord of the Blue Anchor, an inn which once stood close by. The priest escaped and in the chase that followed, he was arrested after his horse refused to jump a ditch. He was tried at Lancaster Castle and given absolution by a fellow prisoner and martyr, St John Southworth, before being hanged, drawn and quartered.

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