St Joseph, Ramsbottom, Roman Catholic

The church does not have a graveyard.

It was founded in 1879.

Fr. Laurence Schneider first said Mass here in a small room in 1861. He was replaced in 1863 by Fr. Michael Keating. A Belgian priest, Fr. Bernard De Mullewie, took over the struggling parish in 1869. He first built a school and then a church, which Cardinal Manning opened in 1880.

This zealous priest died in 1893 and the mission was entrusted to the Rev. James O'Riordan, whose long span of thirty years was identified with the consolidation of the parish. Fr. Robert McGuinness, later Vicar-General of the diocese, became Rector in 1923, after serving as Chaplain to the Forces and at St. Patrick's, Bolton.

Mgr. Hill records in his diary that some Bishops on a visit to Dr. Vaughan were amazed by the situation at Ramsbottom and said that it was a fight against nature to build there.

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.

Copies of Original Registers

• 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.)