St. Osmund’s parish is served from the Church of the Holy Family in Darlington
Pictured is Monsignor Thomas Witham, the first priest in charge of St. Osmund’s, Gainford.
In his day, the mid-nineteenth century, the parish was a mission station, but became a parish in the early twentieth century.
1855-Nov 1860 Mgr Thomas Witham
As previously mentioned, Mgr Witham took personal charge of the parish for its first five years.
Much interesting information on him and part of the area which St Osmund’s parish encompasses is contained in a memoir, written in his later years by Canon Dix who (as Fr Dix) was priest of St Osmund’s between 1895 and 1900 and which was published under the title of “An old time Pastor of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, 1806-1897” in the Ushaw Magazine, March 1949, p16.
That memoir, permission for reproduction of which has kindly been given, merits quoting in full as follows: –
“The motive for writing a memoir such as this is perhaps difficult to discover. It may be that having met an interesting person one wishes to share the interest with others; but one may signally fail in this.
Few who were students at Ushaw in the 80’s will fail to remember that the Ushaw professors adjourned for a short holiday at a certain time of the year to Lartington, the home of Mgr Witham. The time, I think, was the Cock Vacation, but after a lapse of so many years I cannot be sure. There were three reasons for it: – the recollection of cock fighting days was still fresh; the former residence of Mgr Witham as pastor at Esh, and his well known friendship with Ushaw’s President.
I never thought that the old squire would come across my path in the last few years of his life, but I was supplying for the late Father Wood at Tow Law when Bishop Wilkinson summoned me to Ushaw and told me he wanted me to go to Gainford, as Mgr Witham, the old patron and founder of the mission, was complaining about the infirm priests who had been sent there since the death of Father Rodgers.
The Feast of SS Peter and Paul found me at Gainford where a summons awaited me to go to Lartington, as the old Squire wanted to see the young man the Bishop had sent. Accordingly, after the Mass of the Feast, rather in fear and trembling I took the train to Lartington. Mr Body, the Monsignor’s personal attendant, took me to him. He was asleep in the sunny porch of his house. He was then an old man of some ninety years but his kindly old eyes looked me over and, apparently satisfied, he said in his practical way, “Young man, have you got any money?” He knew that, fresh from college, I could not set up house without something. At his direction Mr Body wrote a cheque, which he signed with shaking hand. He spoke about his hopes for Gainford and that is all that happened, so I will proceed to tell what I know about him.
Thomas Edward Witham was born more than a hundred and forty years ago on the banks of the Tees at Piercebridge or, more correctly, at Cliffe Hall in Yorkshire. From time immemorial there had been a Catholic Chapel at Cliffe and a not inconsiderable congregation in the neighbouring villages of Durham and Yorkshire. There were Catholics settled at Piercebridge and the two Coniscliffes in Durham, and at Manfield in Yorkshire. Bishop Wilkinson used to say that once everybody in Manfield was a Catholic except the blacksmith. Cliffe gave its last chaplain to the new hierarchy of England when the Rev Wm Hogarth, who had moved to Darlington, was made the first Bishop of Hexham. Henry Thornton Maire Witham who presided at Cliffe in 1800 had a family of ten children – four sons and six daughters – the youngest surviving son, Thomas Edward, being the subject of this memoir.
He was born on 6 December 1806 and was baptised in the chapel at Cliffe on the day of his birth. There are no particulars of his early life, or at least I never heard him speak of them. He would grow up in the manner of life followed by Catholic families of those days: – retired, secluded and given to the games and sports of his class. At the appropriate age he entered with his brothers the College of Stonyhurst but removed to Ushaw College to study for the priesthood where, after five or six years, he was ordained by Bishop Thomas Smith and straightaway appointed to the mission at Stella. There with commendable zeal he built the present commodious church and presbytery and remained till 1840. But during the last two years of his residence he seems to have been much away. We find him in 1840 at Esh where according to the diary of John Oyston (Ushaw Magazine, 1935, p47) he preached a good sermon: but within two years the same writer tells us that Mr Witham had gone away unwell. After that he seems to have made a short stay with his brother George. Two years later he took up missionary work at Berwick, but I cannot find much of his ministry there except that he busied himself with an appeal for funds to build a church. In 1847, on the death of his brother George, he succeeded to the Lartington estates and went to live at Lartington Hall. He had thus spent fifteen years in missionary work – ten years at Stella, two years at Esh and, after an interval, three years at Berwick. He was now a man forty years old. For the next eight years of his life he was busy with the work of his estate and the exercise of the social duties, which fell to his lot. But, I think, at the back of his mind there was present his intention to repair the loss that the closing of the Chapel at Cliffe had inflicted on the district. Land was bought at Gainford and the building of the Church was begun. Lartington Hall was let and in 1855 Mr Witham settled at Gainford, again to resume the missionary life he had relinquished. Gainford was within sight of his old home and was well chosen as a place of reparation.
We have a few particulars of the menage at Gainford. Things were somewhat primitive, for we are speaking of nearly a hundred years ago. Annie Waugh – a name known to the older generation of Ushawmen – was housekeeper. Mary Storey was housemaid. Frank Goundry was Mr Witham’s butler. Theresa Rickaby came from Coniscliffe to play the organ. Those who knew Mr Witham at Gainford say that he read his sermons and never had Benediction. The few children who came to Mass on Sunday were provided with food and stayed for the afternoon instruction. Mr Witham would ride or drive about the country, visiting his scattered flock. For five years he lived the life that many of us do, who have charge of a country parish. He terminated his stay at Gainford on All Saints Day 1860 when, after saying Mass, he quietly drove off to Lartington Hall, having resigned his charge to Bishop Hogarth, once his father’s chaplain at Cliffe.
When he left Gainford he retired to his native diocese of Middlesbro’ and continued his generous support of the Church. (Editor’s note: – both Lartington and his birthplace, Cliffe Hall, being on the south bank of the Tees, are in that diocese). He kept a chaplain at Lartington and maintained other parishes in that diocese. It is pleasing to recall that his very human life was, rewarded by Pope Leo XIII with the prelatial dignity. The church, presbytery and land at Gainford were transferred to the Hexham Trustees and the mission was endowed. The circumstances are well within my memory. The monsignor wished the endowment to be in the hands of lay trustees and, further, there was the question of what it should be; the old man sadly bewailed the fact that the provision had not been made twenty years sooner when perhaps it might have been done for £1,000.
To end this brief memoir perhaps one can say that, except in the case of very saintly lives, the influence of individual men is restricted and disappears with the passage of time. You ask perhaps what lesson Mr Witham’s life has taught me. I think it is this.
Endowed with considerable wealth he wished to use it in God’s way only. He did so in the knowledge of many beside myself, and always in a humble and unostentatious way. He took the place his position entitled him to, without any desire for self-advancement. I never heard a whisper against one whose priestly position might have exposed him to calumniating tongues. He was simple in his life as he was at his dining table. He loved to see his guests enjoy his palatial hospitality, but contented himself with the diet his physician allowed him.
The recollection of Mr Witham is very dear to me and often when I recall his memory and look at the picture he himself gave me my heart warms with love and reverence for the best of men. May he accept this humble testimony to his many virtues.
Perhaps I should be excused if I quote from diarys of the time.
Gainford – Saturday 4th Dec. 1897 (7pm)
“It is snowing heavily and is very cold and wild. News has just come down the line from Mr Reah the Lartington stationmaster that Mr Witham is dead. I think of that old pinched form and piercing eyes now lying in death at Lartington. The memory of his work for God and the Church is in my mind. If he had lived till Monday he would have completed his ninety first year. If he had lived to 15th December he would have seen the sixty eighth anniversary of his ordination.”
Wed 8th December
The have removed the body of the deceased prelate from the Hall to the chapel. I have assisted at the dirge. The Bishop of Middlesbrough presided. Fr George Silvertop represented the family and there were present Fathers Nelson, Ryan and Connell of the Diocese of Middlesbrough.”
Thursday 9th December
“ Today was a solemn Requiem Mass for the repose of Monsignor Witham’s soul. In the Chapel were relatives, connections and friends. I noticed Mrs Silvertop, Sir John Lawson, Major Chichester Constable, Mrs Salvin, Lord Barnard, Mr J Holmes as well as some forty or fifty clergy mostly from the Middlesbro’ Diocese. After the Mass the procession wended its way to the grave side. The coffin was borne by the workmen of the estate and Monsignor was laid to rest at the right hand side of the cemetery entrance. It had been expected that the mausoleum he had built would be used but it was his wish to be laid to rest among his people”.
Postscript 1945 (August)
“ I have visited today the burial ground at Lartington and have said a prayer at the graveside of my old benefactor. The grave is a handsome monument. The stone has suffered from time. His remains rest in what was his own soil and near the home in which he lived.
Henry Dix”
In his lay capacity as Squire of Lartington, Mgr Witham had many responsibilities and business interests, among which was the Chairmanship of the Tees Valley Railway Company. He was an acquaintance of the Duke of Cleveland, and few Catholic priests of his day dined regularly with a duke on terms of mutual respect.
Without Mgr Witham and the circumstances of his inheritance, St Osmund’s parish would probably never have existed and the church at Gainford never been built. There is a memorial to him there, on the left as one approaches the church porch. For those who are interested, more information on Mgr Witham (and his father) is contained in the booklet, “Lartington Hall – a brief history” by R Rackham, the present owner, a copy of which is available in Barnard Castle Library.
1860 (end) Robert Orrell
Fr Orrell had been ordained in 1853 and appointed to St Joseph’s, Cockermouth. In 1857 he moved to St Cuthbert’s, Durham. Perhaps his short spell at Gainford was a temporary appointment. In 1861 he was appointed to Wolsingham, in 1866 to Easington, and in 1871 to Longhorsley (Morpeth). By 1884 he was living in retirement at Morpeth.
1861 (short time, died March) George Caley
Nothing is currently known of Fr Caley’s background, before his appointment at the age of 40 to St Osmund’s. He died just a few weeks later, on 17th March 1861. From information on his death certificate, it would appear that he had been suffering from the ailment, which was the cause of his death for some months, so he may well already have been a sick man when he came to Gainford.
Shortly before his death the Catholic Cemetery at Barnard Castle had been established, and his was one of the first interments there.
1861-April 1890 James Rodgers
Fr Rodgers was the son of converts from the Scottish Presbyterian Church. His parents were Highlanders who had settled in Glasgow where James was born in 1836. He studied for the priesthood in Rome, where he won the gold medal in a Theological concursus of 76 students, which was presented to him personally by Pope Pius IX.
After ordination in Rome in 1858 he returned to Glasgow to serve in the Western District of Scotland. However, he suffered from ill health and his native Glasgow did not suit him, so his Bishop asked the Bishop of Hexham to take him. He was only 26 when Bishop Hogarth sent him to Gainford as Priest in Charge of the mission. The therapeutic effect appears to have worked, since he lived for another 28 years. Apart from a very detailed Visitation report which he wrote in 1868, there is no documentary evidence of his 28 years’ ministry at Gainford except for the obituary which appeared in the 1891 Northern Catholic Calendar, an extract from which reads: –
‘ The bracing air of Gainford gave him a new lease of life. In this retired village he spent the remaining 28 years of his life. Few know what those 28 years were. He appeared to his fellow-clergy as one of the most robust. He was always among his people, few and scattered as they were. His district was most extensive, and six miles was no unusual walk for him to take in order to visit a sick person. He had no school, and he assembled the Catholic children of the villages in some Catholic house at stated intervals and in stated places. To show the thirst for Truth that exists in the English breast he narrated that on one occasion he had gone to a distant village to instruct a couple of children. He found the room full of people. Sitting down he waited for them to go out. But instead of decreasing the numbers increased; the villagers had heard that the Catholic priest was coming to preach, and they came to hear him.
Of all the inhabitants for miles around he was the most respected; by the poor he was beloved, for he gave them of what little he had. He had the happiness of receiving many converts into the church, notably the wife and daughter of the Vicar. The entire village turned out to see him going to the Vicarage for a sick call on the Vicar’s wife. The Vicar himself opened the door to him, and received him most kindly.
Dear Fr Rodgers was not only a good pastor of his flock, but he was the confidant and adviser of his fellow clergy for miles around. He ministered to them in their sickness; he attended to their flocks when they were absent. To do this he had frequently said one Mass for his own people, and driven eight or ten miles to say Mass and preach at a neighbouring mission. He was the most obliging of friends. Now that he has gone people are beginning to see how much he will be missed.’
Fr Rodgers died on 3rd April 1890 aged 55, and is buried at St Osmund’s.
1890-1894 Michael Birgen
Fr Birgen was born in Luxembourg in 1837. He was ordained on 27th December 1867, and volunteered for the English mission. The first formal record of him in this diocese is in 1869 when he was serving as curate at St Mary’s, Sunderland. However, the logbooks for St Mary’s School, Barnard Castle show him as a regular visitor there between October 1868 and February 1869, with some entries saying that he went in search of truants. On 1st March 1869 he presented prizes, and the entry for the following day says, ‘Fr Birgen left Barnard Castle’, presumably to take up his appointment at Sunderland.
In 1870 he moved as curate to Lowick where he served for a short time, but then left the diocese for a few years. In 1876 he returned, initially to St Charles’, Coxlodge, and in 1880 was appointed to the chaplaincy at Minsteracres.
In 1890 Fr Birgen succeeded Fr Rodgers at Gainford, where he ministered for four years until his death. After a long and painful illness, he died of a disease of the heart on 28th February 1894 aged 57. He is buried at St Osmund’s.
1894-1895 William Toner
Fr Toner was ordained on 9th August 1891. For the first two years he was at St Mary’s, Stockton, before moving first to St Mary’s, Carlisle, and then to St Godric’s, Durham, each for a short time.
In 1894 he succeeded Fr Birgen at Gainford but this may well have been a temporary appointment, since he returned to Carlisle the following year. He was then appointed Rector of Ellingham (1899), Thornley (1903) and finally in 1912 of Our Lady and St Columba, Wallsend, where he remained for the rest of his life. He died 12th April 1941, aged 76.
1895-1900 Henry Dix
It is unusual for a priest to be appointed to sole charge of a parish almost immediately after ordination, but in his memoir on Mgr Witham Fr Dix, who was ordained in 1895, explains the background to his appointment that year to St Osmund’s. It was during his period of office that the improvements of the last decade of the 19th century were carried out, and it is thanks to his careful record keeping that we know so much detail about them. Towards the end of his stay at St Osmund’s, St Peter’s orphanage was founded at Gainford.
In 1901 he moved to St Joseph’s Tow Law and then in 1906 to St Joseph’s Stanley as Parish Priest where he remained for the rest of his life, being appointed a Canon of the Diocese in 1937. He died on 2nd September 1949.
1901-1929 Thomas Hubert Knuckey
Fr Knuckey was ordained in 1898. After short spells at the Cathedral, Newcastle and at Bellingham, he was appointed to St Osmund’s in 1901 at the age of 33, where he served for 28 years. In 1929 he was appointed Parish Priest of St Mary’s Barnard Castle, where he died on 24th October 1948, aged 80.
April 1929-August 1951 James Dent
Fr Dent was ordained in 1910. Over the next 19 years he served at Bishop Auckland; Byermoor; St Joseph’s, Newcastle; St Joseph’s, Hartlepool; St Mary’s, Sunderland; St Mary’s, Stockton and Biddlestone.
He was appointed Parish Priest of St Osmund’s in 1929. He was a great gardener, and during his 22 years at St Osmund’s worked wonders in beautifying the grounds, laying the basis of much of what we see today. He died on 6th August 1951 aged 66 and is buried at St Osmund’s.
Sept 1951-April 1954 John Jacobs
Fr Jacobs was ordained in 1909. Over the next 16 years he served as curate at various parishes in the diocese before being appointed Parish Priest of St Andrew’s, Newcastle where he served for 22 years. He then had short spells as Parish Priest of Stella and later as Chaplain to the Little Sisters of the Poor at Sunderland.
In 1951 he was appointed Parish Priest of St Osmund’s at the age of 69. He remained for only 3 years before being appointed Parish Priest of the Sacred Heart, Boldon, where he served for another 10 years before retiring at the age of 82. He died in 1967 at the age of 85. Fr Stanley noted in a diary, which he kept, that many St Osmund’s parishioners would remember Fr Jacobs for his loving fatherly manner.
1954-Oct 1955 James Cunningham
Fr Cunningham was born in Sunderland in 1901 and ordained at Ushaw in 1932. He was the brother of the Fr John Cunningham who became Vicar General of the diocese. He served as curate at Hexham for 19 years then, after a year’s illness, at Newhouse, Esh Winning.
In 1954 he was appointed Parish Priest of St Osmund’s where his short term ended with his death on 6th October 1955 aged 54 years, a few days after a motoring accident. He is buried at St Osmund’s.
Nov 1955-Sept 1965 Peter Stanley
Fr Stanley was born in Stockton in 1909. He served an apprenticeship as a marine engineer with a Stockton firm with the intention of going to sea, but at the age of 21 decided to study for the priesthood. After ordination in 1937 he served as curate at St Michael’s, Newcastle; St Patrick’s, Langley Moor; St Wilfred’s, Bishop Auckland; St Agnes, Crawcrook and for 9 years at St Augustine’s, Darlington.
In 1955 he was appointed Parish Priest of St Osmund’s where he was very active in both parish and village life. He was much loved, not only by St Osmund’s parishioners but also by the village residents in general. He was a great believer in encouraging social activity (mens sana in corpore sano?). He had the old stable at the drive entrance converted into a parish hall where whist drives and other social functions could be held. He organised cricket matches between the parishioners of St Osmund’s and those of Gainford Parish Church (St Mary’s). The Father Stanley Cup is an annual trophy for Junior Arts and Crafts at the Gainford Horticultural Show, which is held each September. None of this was at the expense of the spiritual life of the parish. Among other things, he established a Spiritual Reading Library and a piety stall in the church, formed the Guild of St Osmund and had the grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes built on the lawn.
Fr Stanley died suddenly on 9th September 1965 at the age of 56. The announcement, which Fr Duffy made at, Mass the following Sunday reads: –
“ Fr Stanley returned from a meeting on Thursday night, sat down at his desk and after speaking for a few moments stopped in mid sentence, his head slumped back and he was dead. In the midst of his pastoral cares the Lord came and found him watching.
His long history of ill-health and suffering the repeated near-calls of death taught him to be ever watching and ready for the Lord when he came. “Blessed are the servants whom the Lord when he comes shall find watching, and if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch and find them so doing, blessed are those servants. For this know ye, that if the good man of the house know at what hour the thief would come he would certainly watch and would not let his house be broken open. Be you also ready for at what hour you know not the Son of Man will come.”
Fr Stanley is buried at St Osmund’s.
1965-Nov 1980 Vincent Duffy
Fr Duffy was born in 1900 and ordained in 1929. After a short spell as curate at St Michael’s, Newcastle, he joined the teaching staff of St Cuthbert’s Grammar School where he served for the next twelve years. After another short spell in parish work at St Cecilia’s, Sunderland, in 1944 he was appointed chaplain to and teacher at St Peter’s, Gainford, then a residential school for boys in need of care and attention.
After Fr Stanley’s death, with the assistance of Fr Wadsworth, he held the fort at St Osmund’s for some months before being formally appointed Parish Priest, which duties he combined with those of chaplain to St Peter’s. He was another keen gardener (and golfer and painter), and although he did not go along with the changes stemming from Vatican 2, he did not actively oppose them. After the entry in the notice book announcing that, as from the 1st Sunday in Advent 1967, priests of the diocese may if they wish read out aloud the Canon of the Mass in English he had written, “pas moi” (not me). Instead he had booklets printed with the Mass in English, which the whole congregation recited aloud while he quietly got on with it in Latin, even after the saying of Mass in English became obligatory. He was much loved, but did not like social functions. When, on the occasion of his Golden Jubilee in 1979, the parishioners were organising a celebratory party, he offered to pay for it out of his own pocket on condition that he did not have to attend himself, but he did so (for a short time) – and insisted on paying for the wine!
He retired in 1980 at the age of 80, initially to live with his sister in the family home at Hartlepool and then at the Little Sisters’ Home in Newcastle. On his death there seven years after retirement (13th Nov 1987) his body was brought back to St Osmund’s where, after a Solemn Requiem Mass, it was buried close to the church porch.
Nov 1980-April 1987 Vincent McClean
Fr McLean was born in 1914 and ordained at Ushaw in 1938. He then took a degree in History at Cambridge before being appointed to the teaching staff of St Cuthbert’s Grammar School, where he served for 15 years. In 1957 he became Parish Priest of St Mary’s Whickham, where he served for 23 years.
In 1980, at the age of 66, he was appointed to St Osmund’s where he served for just over 6 years before retiring at the age of 72 to the Little Sisters’ Home in Newcastle, where he died on 19th February 1991. He is buried in the cemetery adjoining St Joseph’s Home, Newcastle.
1987 to date
Fr McLean was the last resident priest at St Osmund’s. For a few months after his retirement, Fr Pitt, then on the staff at Ushaw College, travelled down to conduct services until St Osmund’s was put under the wing of the Holy Family Church, Darlington, of which Mgr Kevin Nichols is the Parish Priest and, until recently, Fr Michael Campion curate. Fr Campion has now been appointed to his own parish and has been replaced by Fr Peter Stott. A Parish Council has been formed to assist the clergy in the five main activities – Liturgical, Ecumenical, Educational, Social, and Finance & Property. Great assistance in conducting services has been given by FRS Philip and Martin McBrien, brother-priests who retired simultaneously and came to live with their sister in Darlington, but helping out in the Darlington Deanery. Initially Fr Philip was the one who mainly helped out at St Osmund’s. In 1989 he conducted all the Easter Services except the Saturday Vigil Mass. While sitting at the breakfast table on Easter Monday morning he died of a heart attack. He was aged 79 and is buried at St Osmund’s. Fr Martin took over his role there.
As has been previously mentioned, the upper floor of the presbytery has been converted into a self-contained flat, preferably for a retired priest. The first occupant, Fr Thomas Towers, took up residence in May 1991. He was the founder of the Catholic Chaplaincy at Newcastle University, where he was chaplain for 25 years. He then preceded Mgr Nichols as Parish Priest of Holy Family, Darlington before taking up his last appointment as Parish Priest of Our Lady and St Thomas, Willington. He also is now helping out at St Osmund’s and other parishes within the Deanery in addition to continuing with his duties at Chairman of Governors of St John’s School, Bishop Auckland and of Religious Adviser to Tyne-Tees Television.