Brief History of the Church of Our Lady

In 1949, Abbot Romuald Leonard, former Abbot of Belmont (but at that time, Parish Priest of St. Francis Xavier's, Hereford) bought Poole House and its grounds to provide a Catholic school.

In 1954, Archbishop Michael McGrath of Cardiff canonically erected the new Parish of Our Lady on the very day that Pope Pius XII crowned the icon of Our Lady in the Basilica of St. Mary Major in Rome. "Our Lady's" was chosen to reflect local Catholic history: the Chapel of Our Lady of Allingtree once stood beside the gallows jsut a few hundred feet from the site of the present church; the Bodenham family Chapel at Rotherwas, dating from the reign of Elizabeth I, also bore the title "Our Lady's." A Hall was built in 1957, to be ued as a temporarily church.

In 1995, Pope John Paul II blessed the foundation stone of the new church, at an Audience granted at the Vatican in the sight of a group of pilgrims from the parish. The foundation stone was laid on 21st January 1996, and Archbishop Ward returned to consecrate the building on 21st November 1996: the Feast of the Presentation of Our Lady in the Temple.

The new title of the parish, "Our Lady, Queen of Martyrs," calls to mind the Martyrs of Herefordshire: Saint John Kemble (canonisd in 1970 by Pope Paul VI), Blessed John Ingram (beatified by Pope Pius XI in 1929), Blessed Roger Cadwallader and Blessed Nicholas Woodfen (both beatified in 1988 by Pope John Paul II). Portraits of the Martyrs may be seen on the four consecration crosses of the Church.

Stained glass windows of Blessed Josemaria Escriva, Blessed Dominic Barberi, and St. Romuald mark the fact that theirs are the relics which, according to Catholic custom, are interred in the sepulchre of the altar.

The Blessed Sacrament is reserved according to the manner of the pre-Reformation Catholic Church in England, in a Hanging Pyx directly above the altar, recalling the Scripture: "You have given Your people bread from heaven."