A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PARISH AND THE CHURCH
Before the reformation of the Church in England and the dissolution of the Monasteries, Great Yarmouth was home to eight religious houses.
The main church, Saint Nicholas, stands near the town market place and is now the Anglican parish church. It is said to be the largest parish church in the country. This shows the great faith in those early days.
Little is known of the townsfolk who kept to the old faith during penal times. Priests were few and in great danger. Many came to this coast in secret and no doubt Mass was said in the town.
Things were easier in the late eighteenth early nineteenth centuries, when Lord and Lady Bedingfield from Oxburgh Hall in North West Norfolk had a summer residence in the town.
As prominent Catholics, a priest would accompany them on their visits. Records show that Mass was said in some of the old houses in Yarmouth’s famous rows and in a house which stood in the shadow of Saint Nicholas church.
A MacDonald's and Kentucky fried chicken café now stand on the site of the Bedingfield summer residence...
In 1824 the Society of Jesus decided to start a mission in the town. The man picked for this was Father Tate S.J.
His first impressions couldn’t have been very good, as he complained in a letter that: “The town is just fish offices and fish shops not suitable for a Chapel.”...
He was being a bit hard on the town as it was published at the time that:
“Yarmouth has an up to date bath house with douches for hot and cold sea water, a jetty, the best constructed bathing machines with expert drivers and proper assistance, air of the purest quality and extremely conducive to health, so that agues were few and fevers more so.
There was a new concert establishment, new docks, new subscription rooms patronized by a society of gentlemen of great respectability, a theatre favored with appearance by all the London actors and on the south denes a new monument to Lord Nelson, a local Hero....
Father Tate soon found more than fish shops. In a very short time he managed to buy a house and warehouse which he converted into a chapel. This building stood in the heart of the old rows and, although badly damaged by bombing in the last war remained until demolition in the 1950’s making way for new council flats.
In 1841 a new pastor arrived, a refugee from his native Spain; Father Don Claudio Lopez. It was said of him that he had a great love of the poor. This would have made him feel very much at home in the town.
By now the little chapel was too small for the growing numbers and Father Lopez set about finding a site for a new church. This proved difficult as some to the local people didn’t want a Catholic Church built here.
Finally a site was found on a small lane leading from the town to the sea. When asked at the time why he built his Church on the Denes he replied:
“The town will follow me”.
How right he was.