| Description | Around 1866, a group of mill workers - mainly women - were sent from Dundee to Ponders End to establish a jute factory and train the local work force. Several of the Scottish workers were Roman Catholics, but the nearest Catholic churches in the area were some distance away in Waltham Cross and Tottenham. A Catholic forewoman working at the jute factory allowed her house in Alma Road to be used for the saying of the Holy Rosary. The women contributed towards a statue of Our Lady and made the first altar in Ponders End.
In 1876 Fr Bronsgeest was sent to Waltham Cross as Parish Priest and would occasionally hold Mass services for the congregation at Ponders End in a room of a house occupied by a Mrs Quinn. Miss Armstrong, a teacher from Waltham Cross, gave catechism classes to the children on Sundays in Mrs Quinn’s house until the time that she returned to Dundee and the house was no longer available. In 1887 Fr Bronsgeest obtained a house in Stanley Street, now demolished, and used it as a school. Canon Richards, the Diocesan Inspector, would visit the school and report back to Cardinal Manning. Mass was said on Fridays in Stanley Street in one room and Confessions were heard in another room. Fr Bronsgeest subsequently bought a piece of land in Alma Road and in 1888 Cardinal Manning paid for a corrugated iron building, previously a workshop attached to an industrial school in Ilford, to be set up in Alma Road, where it was used both as a school and a church. In 1890, Fr. Bronsgeest built a brick building behind the corrugated iron building. This was the first St. Mary’s School and was also used as a Church. As Fr Bronsgeest served Enfield as well as Waltham Cross and Ponders End, he had a demanding schedule.On Sundays, Fr Bronsgeest gave Communion at Waltham Cross at 8.00 am, then he went by pony and trap to Enfield for Mass at 9.00 am, then he returned to Waltham Cross for Mass at 11.00 am. There was Benediction at Ponders End at 3.00 pm and then Benediction at Waltham Cross at 6.00 pm. Mass in Ponders End had to be held on Fridays to accommodate the services held in the other parishes. In 1899, Fr Bronsgeest was relieved of the Enfield and Ponders End parishes. Fr O’Gorman became Parish Priest of Enfield and was able to say mass in Ponders End on Sundays and Holydays.
In 1904 the Redemptorist Fathers came to Edmonton Parish and responsibility for Ponders End was transferred to them from the parish of Enfield. Mass continued to be said on Sundays and Holydays, as before, and the serving priest would then go to a house in Ponders End for breakfast. In 1912 the Redemptorists obtained the land the Church now occupies in Nags Head Road. A corrugated iron building was built and used as a Church. It was in 1912 that the parish was formally designated as such. The old church in Alma Road was pulled down to make a bigger playground for the school. The priest was then visiting a family at 140 Nags Head Road for his breakfast on Sundays.
In 1919, Fr Foley, recently demobbed as a forces Chaplain, was appointed as the first Parish Priest for Ponders End. He began to raise funds to build a new church. The foundation-stone of the new church was laid by Cardinal Bourne in September 1921, although the first Mass was not said in the newly-built church of St Mary's until Christmas Eve, 1924. The stained glass windows in the Lady Chapel were Fr Foley’s personal tribute to his predecessor,Fr. Bronsgeest, each window representing one of the saints of his Christian names (Edward, Ambrose, George and Joseph).
On 8th September 1985, the church was consecrated and its name was changed from St Mary to Mary, Mother of God. |