---History of St. Mary's Mission---
Written for the opening of the new school in September 1965
With the coming of Christianity to Britain, the ancient Roman fortress of Malton became the centre of one of the most Catholic parts of the country. The Gilbertines built their priory in Malton itself; the Cistercians came to Rievaulx and Byland, the Benedictines to Lastingham and the Austin Canons to Kirkham.
With the suppression of the monasteries in the sixteenth Century, the pattern changed, and those who stuck to the old ways became recusants. For over two hundred years there was no resident Catholic priest in Malton, and the Catholics had to depend on priests like the Venerable Nicholas Postgate who visited them from time to time.
But in 1835 when the climate was changing, the Catholics of Malton organised themselves under Mary Dunk, and petitioned Bishop Briggs for a resident priest, whom they guaranteed to support. The Bishop sent Father Robert Garstang in answer to the petition. He took up residence in Newbiggin, helped particularly by the Horsley family. He said Mass in the house. Thus began the Mission of Saint Mary's, Malton in 1835.
Father Garstang was a remarkably able and zealous man. In an astonishingly short time, he had built the present church of Saint Mary in Wells Lane. It was opened in 1837. Beside the church he built his presbytery and a school. Thus almost immediately he had one of the best equipped parishes in the Northern District.
Father Thomas Middlehurst succeeded Father Garstang in 1854 when there were two hundred parishioners with thirty children in the school. His main difficulty was how to minister to an area of 200 square miles in his pony and trap.
Father Clark and Father Hickey took charge of the mission after Father Middlehurst's death, until Canon d'Hooghe came at the turn of the Century. Canon d'Hooghe made the church what it is today. He employed artists and craftsmen to decorate and refurnish the church. His green, gold and jasper decoration has been carefully preserved to this day. His congregation numbered about 200, and the forty children in the school were helped by the new provisions of the 1902 Education Act.
Today Malton is no longer the “forgotten, neglected, desolate vineyard” mentioned in the petition to Bishop Briggs. In 1964 the old school was reorganised by Father Patrick Loughran and a new building on Peasey Hill was opened. Thus begins a new chapter in the history of the parish.
Three Malton men now serve the diocese as priests: Father Gerard Bankes, Father Denis Bankes and Father Edward Glynn. |
