Welcome to the Catholic Church in Biddulph, Goldenhill, Kidsgrove and Packmoor

Welcome to the website of our parish partnership. Our partnership includes three parishes, four churches, three schools, and covers quite a wide area. If you want to know what is happening at the moment in our parishes, have a look at this week’s bulletin, or look at the events that are coming up. If you want to know how to make contact with us or want to know how to arrange a baptism, wedding or funeral then you’ll find information on the relevant pages. If you are a parishioner, please let us know what information you would like to see on our pages. If you are a visitor, please leave us feedback, and please come and visit us in person soon.

Biddulph

Church Road, Biddulph
Staffordshire, ST8 6JG
Tel: 01782 782121

Mass: Sunday 9:00am

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goldenhill

High Street, Goldenhill
Stoke-on-Trent, ST6 5RD
Tel: 01782 782121

Mass: Sunday 11:00am

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kidsgrove

The Avenue, Kidsgrove
Staffordshire, ST7 1AE
Tel: 01782 782121

 

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stpatrick

Mellor Street, Packmoor
Stoke-on-Trent, ST7 4SN
Tel: 01782 782121

Mass: Saturday 5:30pm

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St John’s, Kidsgrove

St John’s Church was built in 1892 and the Church was officially opened, and the first Mass celebrated there by the Bishop of Birmingham, Bishop Ilsley, on Wednesday 8th February 1893 at 11.30am. The Church was founded from the Parish of Goldenhill, where Fr Thomas Kenny had been Parish Priest for about ten years. He worked together with Mr William Young Craig, a builder, surveyor, JP and former MP (he was MP for the North Staffordshire consituency from 1880 to 1885), to bring about the building of St John’s. Mr Craig was brought up in Haggerston, near Lindisfarne in Northumberland, son of a Scottish father,  but had moved to Staffordshire in 1861 to manage Harecastle Collieries, and in 1891 was living at Milton House, Alsager. Although Mr Craig had been brought up a Presbyterian, he converted to the Catholic Church in the late 1880s. His correspondence with Fr Kenny reveal a man of great zeal for his newly found Catholic Faith. He felt such a great gratitude for his conversion that he determined to leave a lasting legacy to the Catholics of Kidsgrove by building the Church. The cost of the Church was £4,200, which including the cost of building the attached presbytery and a school building. William Craig died in Wrexham in 1924 at the age of 96.

A new Parish Priest took over in Goldenhill once the new Church was opened in Kidsgrove and Fr Kenny became Parish Priest of Kidsgrove alone. Sadly he died only seven and a half years after the opening of the Church, at the age of 51. His funeral took place at St John’s on 22nd July 1900. The Catholic population of Kidsgrove at this time was quite low, remaining at only around 200 in the early part of the 20th Century, and rising to 600 in 1957.

In 1932, a new school – the present school site on the The Avenue – was opened, and major renovations to the presbytery were completed.

Since its foundation, the Parish has been served by sixteen Parish Priests:

1892-1900 Fr Thomas Kenny

1900-1902 Fr Raymond Haskew

1902-1905 Fr Francis Joseph Swift

1905-1910 Fr William Power

1910-1914 Fr William E O’Dowd

1914-1922 Fr John Francis Bromfield

1922-1924 Fr George Frederick Mesher

1924-1936 Fr James Young Murray

1936-1944 Fr Michael Joseph Walshe

1944-1949 Fr Henry Joseph Taylor

1949-1985 Fr Ernest William Cook

1985-1986 Fr Plunkett Shannon

1986-1988 Fr Peter Blundell

1988-1997 Fr Eric Woodhead

1997-2012 Fr David Newell (Priest-in-Charge)

2012-present Fr Julian Green

Due to a decrease in the numbers attending, and the school vacating the site next to the church, St John’s Church was sadly closed after a final thanksgiving Mass on 28th October 2023.

Many thanks to John Coates for researching the history of the Parish.