| Description | The parish of the Sacred Heart and Mary Immaculate can trace its origins back more than 100 years to 1889, when the Catholics of Mill Hill started to attend Mass in the chapel of the Sisters of Charity on the Ridgeway. In 1905 the chapel became the parish church.
By 1920, the need for a catholic centre was very clear, so three priests, Fr Simon Hegarty CM. (the Parish Priest of St. Vincent's), Fr Joseph Walshe CM., and Fr Charles Bagnall CM. began discussions for a hall that would seat 300 people.
In 1921, a parcel of land between Flower Lane and what is now the Broadway was purchased by the Vincentian Fathers, and by June 1922 Fr Hegarty was instructing the architects, Fr Benedict Williamson and J.H. Beart Foss, to design, not a hall, but a church to seat 300. The first turf was cut by Fr Walshe and the Sister Provincial on December 10th 1922. On January 25th 1923, the contract was signed for £7,233 with the building contractors, and work began on January 29th. Cardinal Bourne visited the site on February 6th to lay the foundation stone, and again exactly ten months later on December 6th 1923 to open the church, which was blessed by Fr Walshe. |