| Description | Fr Kenelm Vaughan, brother to Archbishop Vaughan of Westminster, attempted to establish a Catholic presence in Hatfield around 1900. He bought a house in St Albans Road and built a brick chapel in the grounds. He established the Brotherhood of the Expiation, but this religious order did not long survive his own death in 1909. Fr Kenelm's nephew, Dr Herbert Vaughan, then took over the property for the Westminster Diocesan Missionary Society, of which he was the Superior. Mass continued to be offered by priests from the Westminster Diocesan Missionary Society until 1922, when the property was transferred to the care of Mgr Henry Barton Brown, who established a house of studies for men wishing to become priests and also for convert clergymen, renaming it 'St Charles House'.
At the other end of Hatfield, Carmelite nuns established a convent on the site of an old brewery in 1925. The chapel for the convent served as a parish church until a new church could be built and the property in St Albans Road sold. In 1930, Cardinal Bourne bought land from the Carmelite nuns based in Hatfield and built the church of the Blessed Sacrament and St Theresa on the site. A Presbytery was added in 1932. Fr David Arbuthnott, who had been appointed to Hatfield in 1929, was the first parish priest there until he left in 1933. He was succeeded by Fr Peter Hemus Williams, who, despite suffering from increasingly poor health, remained parish priest until his retirement in 1943. During Fr Williams tenure, Cardinal Hinsley formally constituted the parish of Hatfield on 19 May 1937, and fixed its boundaries as co-terminous with the Hatfield Rural District. The Carmelite nuns left Hatfield in 1938, moving to Hitchin and later, in 1959, to Ware.
Fr David Arbuthnott was reappointed parish priest following the retirement of Fr Williams in 1943, and was succeeded in turn by Fr John Milne when he retired in May 1954. The establishment of Hatfield New Town and seen a rapid rise in the number of Catholics attending Mass, so much so that in November 1959, Hatfield was divided into two parishes. St Theresa's included Hatfield Town, Essendon and Northaw. The new Parish of St Peter's, Hatfield South, comprised Ellenbrook, Roe Green, Oxleas, South Hatfield, North Mymms, Brookman's Park and Welham Green. With the division of the parish, Fr Stanislaus Savage was appointed parish priest for St Theresa's, while Fr Milne took over the new parish of St Peter's, Hatfield South.
In September 1959, a Roman Catholic Primary School, the Blessed Philip Howard School, was opened in Woods Avenue under the headship of Rev Mother Mary Carmel, who came daily from St Albans together with other Sisters of Mercy to teach at the school. The school also provided a centre where Mass could be said in the parish of St Peter while funds were raised to build a new church there. Mass was also said at the Memorial Hall in Welham Green for the benefit of the southern part of the parish. In 1960, a house was purchased for the Sisters of Mercy in Sycamore Avenue where they established a convent.
By the early 1960s the growing congregation of the Blessed Sacrament and St Theresa needed more space, and plans were drawn up for a new church. The proposal was delayed while plans for Hatfield New Town were developed, but at the end of the 1960s land to the south of the existing church was made available as a result of the re-planning of the Hatfield Old Town: terraces were demolished and the street pattern redrawn to allow for the straightening and widening of the old Great North Road, as a result of which the new circular church was built attached to the south end of the earlier building, replacing terraces and a road. The new church was designed by the architect George Mathers of Ware and built in 1970 by George Davis and Sons, with parish rooms attached to the north-east corner forming the east side of a courtyard garden of which the old church and the presbytery form the other two sides, with the new church to the south. Upon its completion, the new church was rededicated to Mary, Mother of the Church, and became known as Marychurch. |