PARISH HISTORY - 1850 TO 1911

The restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy in 1850 was the occasion for further anti-Catholic prejudices to come to the fore. Fr Luke Curry succeeded to the parish when the furore was at its height and relations between Catholics and others were soured in Carlisle as elsewhere. Sectarian animosity thwarted Fr Curry in his efforts to improve the educational standards in the school, to establish a Catholic Burial Ground, and to gain access to Catholic prisoners in Carlisle Gaol. These difficulties were offset by the satisfaction he must have experienced when it became possible to found another Catholic parish to the west of the city centre in 1866 (St Bede’s). He also enjoyed the support of the local military authorities.

A large gong for use in the sanctuary (and still in use) was presented to the church by the Catholic soldiers of the 48^th Regiment on the occasion of their embarkation to the Crimean War in 1854. The accompanying testimonial says that this is in appreciation of  Fr Curry’s ‘exertions and paternal solicitude in the cause of our eternal welfare’. His achievements did not go unnoticed and he was made a Canon of the Hexham and Newcastle Cathedral Chapter in 1864. In 1879 he retired to Dodding Green and he died and was buried there in 1890.

Canon George Waterton, previously the priest in charge of the mission in South Shields, was appointed by the Bishop to succeed Canon Curry in 1879. His vast experience of educational matters in the North East soon was recognised in Carlisle when he was made a member of the city’s School Board, on which he remained an influential figure for the next twenty years. He enlarged the already existing St Patrick’s School and went ahead with the building of a new parish Junior School in Union Street.

Canon Waterton's main achievement, however, must be the construction of the present church of Our Lady and St Joseph. There were generous benefactors and at the laying of the foundation stone a spectacular procession started from the old church in Chapel Street to the new site in Warwick Square, the band reaching its destination as the Bishop’s carriage was just starting off. Mr Hanson, the architect, handed Bishop Wilkinson of Hexham and Newcastle a silver trowel and the stone was laid. The church finally opened on June 15^th 1893.

Canon Waterton was also responsible for the acquisition of land for the building of  the Home for the Little Sisters of the Poor at Botcherby; Durranhill House (a ‘House of Providence, for rescue work or shelter for poor unprotected girls’  run by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Mary) and the Poor Sisters of Nazareth Home for homeless children on St Ann’s Hill (now Austin Friars’ School). In 1906 he was responsible for the building of the Waterton Hall ‘to commemorate twenty five years of his pastorate in Carlisle’. He retired in 1907 and died at Durranhill House in 1911.