St Marie, Osbaldeston, Roman Catholic

The church has/had a graveyard.

It was founded in 1832.

The name of this parish deservedly perpetuates that of an ancient Catholic family, who gave a martyr to the Church. Osbaldeston Hall, the seat of the family, stands in ruins, and the family is scattered, but the church is still a centre round which are gathered some of the old families of the district.

The present mission is an offshoot from Samlesbury, and was founded in 1834 by the Rev. F. Curtis. Mass was said occasionally in an old farm-house, which served as school and chapel. In 1836, that great benefactor of Catholic parishes, Captain Heatley of Brindle Lodge, bought a farm of 49 acres as endowment and a piece of land of 3 acres for the church, presbytery and graveyard. With the donations of the generous Founder and with help from the voluntary labours of some of the men, a beautiful church and house were built in a solid and simple style well suited to the countryside. The church was opened on October 25, 1838.

The first resident priest was the Rev. Dr. Corless, who endured some petty attacks and annoyances from bigoted neighbours. Fr. Irving (1837 to 1857) did good work by building a school; he also added a choir-gallery and organ to the church and embellished the sanctuary and altar.

For the purposes of record, the following are some of the priests who have served the mission: Fr. T. Smith, 1857; Fr. E. Tunstall, 1879; Fr. Laurence Johnson 1894; John Canon Boulaye, 1897; Fr. Michael Cahill, 1902; Fr. Jas. Manning, 1904; Fr.J. Aukes, 1906; Fr. John Murtagh, 1909; Fr. Joseph Hayes, 1910. In more recent years the parish priests have been: Fr. Wm. Drake, Fr. Wm. Brown, Fr. Keegan, Fr. Charles Hope, Fr. John Feeney.

Taken from "Salford Diocese and its Catholic past", a survey by Charles A. Bolton, a Priest of the above Diocese. Published 1950 on the First Centenary for the Diocese of Salford.

This site provides historical information about churches, other places of worship and cemeteries. It has no connection with the churches themselves. For current information you should contact them directly.

Original Registers

Copies of Original Registers

Register Transcripts

Indexes

• OpenStreetMap
• Google Maps
• StreetMap (Current Ordnance Survey maps)
• Bing (was Multimap)
• Old Maps Online
• National Library of Scotland (Old Ordnance Survey maps)
• Vision of Britain (Click "Historical units & statistics" for administrative areas.)
• English Jurisdictions in 1851 (Unfortunately the LDS have removed the facility to enable us to specify a starting location, you will need to search yourself on their map.)
• Magic (Geographic information) (Click + on map if it doesn't show)
• GeoHack (Links to on-line maps and location specific services.)