| Description | The permanent post-Reformation Catholic presence in Isleworth started in the household of the Earl of Shrewsbury. He had a mansion known as Shrewsbury House and he maintained a chaplain who ministered to the household and to local Catholics. A chapel was provided within the house. When the main house at Shrewsbury Place was demolished in 1810, the chapel was retained. Lord Shrewsbury formally conveyed the chapel to the church authorities in 1824.
In 1854, the incoming missionary rector, Mgr Weld, considered the chapel too small and he replaced it at his own expense with a larger chapel on the same site. The earlier building was retained as a sacristy.
Father Green came to serve at Isleworth in 1906 and found a large and growing Catholic population served by a small back street chapel with a capacity of 200.
In 1907, he started the annual outdoor procession in honour of the Isleworth Martyrs. He went on to organize the construction of a new church in a prominent position at a main road junction on the edge of the village. The new church was consecrated in 1910.
Isleworth Catholic Parish is dedicated to Our Lady of Sorrows and St Bridget of Sweden. |