St. Peter-in-Chains - Doncaster at Chequer Road, Doncaster, South Yorkshire DN1 2AA UK - A Brief History of the Parish of Saint Peter-in-chains (1867 - 1967)

The Altar and Tabernacle

The 1st August 1867 saw the solemn opening of the first Catholic Church to be seen in Doncaster since the Reformation. On that occasion, the Bishop of Beverley, the Rt. Rev. R. Cornthwaite, sang Pontifical High Mass before a crowded congregation and afterwards was guest of honour at a luncheon in the Town Hall. Today, with similar celebrations, we can reflect on a hundred years of growth where ten parishes have grown out of one, to serve the needs of the expanding community of Doncaster. In 1867, the inaugural preacher referred to the deliverance of St. Peter from his chains in Herod's prison and saw the opening of this church as a major stage in the emancipation of the Catholic community of Doncaster. This town, however, was strong in the faith in the days that merited the title the Age of Faith " Within the medieval bounds of Doncaster stood the parish Church of St. George, a large church dedicated to St. Mary Magdalen, two religious houses, and a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady on the Bridge. Today burdened as we are with the problem of providing for our religious needs we might well envy the provision made by our medieval ancestors for the needs of the faithful. Nowadays, Greyfriars Road calls to mind the Technical College or the Public Baths; but it also recalls a period of two hundred and fifty years when it lead to the Friary of the Franciscans who arrived in the town in the early part o~ the 13th century. Priory Place today is mainly associated with the Methodist Church and the Post Office; but six hundred years ago a Carmelite Friary was founded in Doncaster and there on the site of the Post Office, this religious house rose to fame because of its most famous treasure, the shrine of the statue of Our Lady which made this town a centre of medieval pilgrimage. So famous was this statue that it invited the attention of those who wished to change England's religious beliefs and practices in the 16th century. Bishop Latimer in 1536 writing to Thomas Cromwell in reference to the statue Of Our Lady of Worcester, said, she-with her old sister of Walsingham, her younger sister of Ipswich, with their two sisters of Doncaster and Penryn, would make a jolly muster at Smithfield" One final pilgrimage, however, was to come to Doncaster in defence of the Old Faith. This was the Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536, which was not an altogether futile attempt to demonstrate, among other things, the love of the people of the North of England for their monasteries, which were being destroyed. We can see that the story of the meeting that took place on the 27th October, 1536, between the Leaguers of the Pilgrimage and Henry VII is representatives, will always remain as a prime example of the attachment of ten Northern Catholics to the Faith. Today no great memorial remains of Doncaster's past associations with the Catholic Church. In the surrounding area the ruins of Roche Abbey and Burghwallis Hall are tangible historical evidence of the Faith; out within the town itself there is little or nothing. The religious houses and St. Mary Magdalen's Church were dissolved in the 16th century and St. Georges was destroyed by fire in 1853. For some three hundred years after the Reformation the Church had few adherents in Doncaster. There was no building where the Catholics of the town might assemble to worship God and there was no priest to serve them. In the early part of the last century, however, the Catholics of Doncaster began to repair the destruction begun in the 16th century. Their efforts resulted in the purchase of a plot of land in Prince's Street for £400. A building on this land was converted into a schoolroom and in 1833 a mission was established. Two years later the town had its first resident priest: Fr. John Furniss, who converted a house adjoining the schoolroom into a chapel and dedicated it to St. Peter in Chains. In 1863 Fr. Edward Pearson came to Doncaster and turned the existing church into the building we are using today. As the town changed from being a small market town into a centre of industry and commerce the population increased and the Church had to expand to supply the needs of growing numbers of Catholics, especially in the nearby mining villages. New churches were opened at Edlington 1923, Woodlands 1925, Askern 1925, Rossington 1928, Kirk Sandall 1930, Armthorpe 1930, Balby 1933, Bentley 1936, Wheatley 1947 and Cantley 1957. Now, though it continues to provide for the spiritual needs of a wide area, the actual boundaries of the mother parish have been very much reduced, since each of the above-mentioned areas is self-supporting. It is a tribute to the zeal of many priests and people that so many Parishes have been erected over the last thirty years and that the Catholic Church has developed so successfully from its humble renewal in the 19th century. For the future we can look forward hopefully to the building of a new church, dedicated to St. Peter, and under the patronage of Our Lady of Doncaster we shall expect great favours from her in her restored shrine, so that this town may once more become a gracious portion of the "Dowry of Mary".

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