www.stmarysgteccleston.org.uk

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Welcome to our website and to St. Francis of Assisi, Chapel of Ease, Hambleton which is served from Saint Mary's, Great Eccleston, which serves the Catholic community in Great Eccleston and surrounding villages of Elswick, Rosacre, Thistleton and Crossmore.

Epilogue - The Chapel of Saint Francis of Assisi

"...Strictly speaking, this should not be included, as it is well outside the period dealt with in this Book. It is thought, however, that the following should be on record for the benefit of future Historians..." --Jack Hatton 'Bygone Days in Hambleton'

Sunday, July 9th, 1967, saw twenty-one Catholics who resided in Hambleton listening to Father Gaffney from Pilling celebrating Holy Mass in the "Village Farm" -ancient thatched cottage in Market Street, and home of the Bolangaro Family. This was a very special day -for it was the first time that Mass had been celebrated in the Village for over 400 years.

The Bolangaro's living-room was never built to accommodate a congregation of twenty-one. plus an Altar! So for the following Sunday (16th July) it was decided to have Mass in the Supper-room at the Village Hall. Soon this room also became too small for the number of people attending, and Sunday Mass had to be transferred to the Main Hall of the Building.

Before long, death was to take Father Gaffney from his People, but his successor, Father Bilsborrow, and sometimes Priests from the Seminary at Underley, continued to celebrate Mass at the Village Hall until the Autumn of 1973.

It was around this time Hambleton became attached to the Parish of Little Thornton, and Father Mitchell. Little Thornton's Parish Priest, took over responsibility for saying Mass at our Village Hall each Sunday and on Holy Days.

With the lovely village of Hambleton nestling as it does in rural surroundings. it was thought fitting to dedicate this area of the Parish to Saint Francis of Assisi -a Saint who loved the simple and uncomplicated ways of country life. Clearly, this new and growing community needed its own Peace of Worship, and after efforts to obtain two other plots of land in the District had failed, the field opposite the Village Hall was purchased early in 1975 as a future site for a Chapel. On Sunday, 3rd July, 1977 -almost ten years to the day since that first Holy Mass was celebrated at "Village Farm" -a congregation of nearly one hundred people in the Village Hall heard Father Mitchell give the long-awaited news...'that the building of the new Chapel was to commence in the not too distant future!...

Plans were prepared, and after the usual delays and frustrations connected with such matters, these were finally passed by the Wyre Borough Council on 2nd March 1978. By early July the Builders had moved in and commenced digging the foundations.

On Saturday, March 31st, 1979 the Bishop of Lancaster visited Hambleton to celebrate Mass and Bless the new Chapel. From the adjoining Playing-field a group of children with wind-tanned faces came to peer through the glass doors at the Ceremony. After a while --their curiosity satisfied --they left. Slowly they wandered back to their swings and see-saws --unaware that for a few brief moments of their young lives they had gazed on LOCAL HlSTORY in the making!

The above text was taken from 'Bygone Days in Hambleton' by Jack Hatton illustrated by Pat Hatton - Jack & Pat Hatton were parishioners of Saint Francis involved in the building of the chapel.