| Description | The Parish of Royston was founded in 1911 when a church dedicated to St Thomas of Canterbury and the English Martyrs was opened on 21 December in a rented stable in Serby Avenue. In 1912, three Sisters of Providence and the Immaculate Conception made a small Foundation at Royston, moving from Serby Avenue to Rock Road in 1914, where they set up an Elementary School and later a High School. At the end of 1915, the Sisters of the Adoration of the Sacred Heart of Jesus from Tyburn Convent also made a Foundation in Royston, in Melbourne Road. It was then decided that all the activities of the Parish should be brought together in one place and so plans were made to build a new Church and a Presbytery on land purchased by the two Orders of Sisters. The church, designed by Fr Benedict Williamson, C.S.S.S, was based on an enlarged copy of the Church of St Bridget in the Piazza Farnese in Rome, the foundation stone being laid in 1916 and the church opened in 1919. An architect by training, Fr Williamson appears to have been the only UK member of the Bridgittine Order, sometimes known as the Order of St Saviour. He was parish priest at Royston from 1920-21, deputising for Mgr Barton-Brown (who had first established the Mission at Royston), and again from 1922-24. It was during this time that a novitiate at St Benedict’s Priory was built from his designs. The church of St Thomas of Canterbury and the English Martyrs originally had a flat roof, which was replaced by the present pitched roof in 1939 at the recommendation of the architect, A. H. Archard. In 1957 a new Presbytery was built at No 6 Melbourne Road, designed by Stephen Dykes Bower.
In the late 1960s, the Sisters of Providence gave some land to the north of the church for the building of a new primary school, which opened in 1970. A car park for the church was also built. The interior was redecorated in 1973, with linoleum covering the stone flagged floor, a new staircase provided up to the gallery, the altar rails removed and new seating installed in the side chapels/transepts. The interior was also redecorated. In 1988, a new parish hall behind the church was opened by Cardinal Basil Hume and in 1994 a new organ was installed in the church.
In 1998 the Sisters of Providence left the parish. The convent property, except for one house, was sold for redevelopment and the main building demolished. |