| Description | In 1920, Mr. Beckett came to live in Wyllyotts Manor, and placed a room at the disposal of fellow Catholics in Potters Bar, where his son, Fr Maurice Beckett, celebrated Mass at weekends. In 1922, Sir Nicholas Gratton Doyle MP provided a room furnished as a Chapel for the local Catholics at his residence, Boundary House, in Little Heath. In the same year, two Priests and one Brother from the Spanish House of the Vincentians (Congregation of the Missions (CM)) arrived in Potters Bar to establish a House of Studies for their young priests to learn English before embarking on missionary work around the world. They took up residence at Hillside House, for which the main entrance was from Barnet Road. At about the same time, Irish Dominican Sisters purchased a large house in Church Road and established the Rosary Convent, whose chapel local Catholics could attend. The Convent was closed in 1937 and demolished in 1956 to make way for a road named Rosary Court where some maisonettes were built.
In 1925, a temporary Church, dedicated to St Francis Xavier and seating about 40, was built alongside the Southgate Road boundary of Hillside House. Many furnishing were transferred to the Church from Boundary House. It served as the Parish Church and one of the resident priests at Hillside House acted as Parish Priest. Fr. Gumersindo Grande became parish priest in 1931 and remained in Potters Bar until 1992.
On 20 January 1945, a German V2 Rocket fell in Southgate Road demolishing the Church of St Francis Xavier and a number of adjacent houses, and inflicting heavy casualties in the vicinity. The only item that survived the destruction of the Church was a wooden statue of Our Lady, which was later to be placed in the new church built on the site. It was in turn transferred to the new Church of Our Lady and St Vincent. Following the destruction of the church of St Francis Xavier, parishioners used the Vincentians’ private Chapel and later their Community Hall. To accommodate everyone for Midnight Mass at Christmas in 1945 and 1946, Mass was celebrated at the local cinema, “The Ritz”, in Darkes Lane. Many of the parishioners began to attend the church of Our Lady of the Assumption in Mutton Lane, which was opened in 1950 to serve as the Parish Church for Potters Bar, South Mimms and Ridge.
In 1957, Fr. Evelio Ortiz, who had been the Assistant Priest at St Francis Xavier between 1940 and 1945, returned to Potters Bar to take charge of the building of a new church. The foundation stone of the new church was laid by the Most Rev William Slattery SUP General CM on 22 July 1960. The stone bears the dates 1660 – 1960, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the death of St Vincent in Paris. The new church was opened by the Vincentians on the site of the former church of St Francis Xavier in Southgate Road in 1962. The church was one of the last designed by architect Francis Xavier Velarde, while a Spanish artist, Joachim Camin, carved the black marble altar and painted the mural on the wall behind the altar, measuring 30 feet by 16 feet. With seating capacity for over 200, many of the original parishioners of St Francis Xavier returned to the new church.
In 1967 St Vincent’s was designated the parish church of Potters Bar East and Fr Ortiz became the Parish Priest, while Our Lady of the Assumption became the parish church for Potters Bar West. From 1922 to 1992, some 55 Priests and Brothers served or studied in Potters Bar but as the number of Vincentians in residence at Hillside House declined, it was decided that the property would be sold and and the remaining Vincentians would return to Spain. Following their departure, a Diocesan Priest, Fr. Michael Donaghy, was appointed Parish Priest and St Vincent's was formally acquired by the Diocese of Westminster in 1995..
In 1996, the Hospitaller Order of St John of God, which had been in the area since well before the Second World War, took over the running of St Vincent’s, with the intention of developing it for their work of care. In view of this possibility, the question of amalgamating the two parishes of Potters Bar East and Potters Bar West was put on hold. Unfortunately negotiations were not concluded satisfactorily and, having found another suitable site for their work, the Brothers departed in 1998.
In 1998 Fr. Peter Lyness was appointed Parish Priest and in December 2001 December, following a provisional decision by Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor that the two parishes should merge, a Steering Committee under the Chairmanship of Bishop James O’Brien VG was formed, which included the Parish Priests from Potters Bar East and Potters Bar West and three members from each parish. In August 2002, Fr. Peter Lyness left to become Parish Priest at St Teresa of the Child Jesus, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. Three years later, in December 2005, the church of St Vincent de Paul and St Louise de Marillac was closed. Thereafter all Sunday Masses were held at the nearby Pope Paul Catholic Primary School. |