PARISH HISTORY 1911 to 1977

Canon Waterton was succeeded by Fr George Fehrenbach who died within a few months of taking up his post. Mgr George Knuckey was his successor and continued the work of expansion of the parish and its buildings. He was soon to be involved with more serious concerns. The First World War broke out and, as the parish War Memorial records, no less than 74 men from the parish were killed. It is said that all the decorations the British Army awarded for valour are to be seen on the same Memorial. Through the following difficult times of worldwide depression and the General Strike Mgr Knuckey managed to take an interest in many local affairs and societies. He left Carlisle for Preston in 1929 to become the Vicar General of the newly formed Lancaster Diocese, of which Cumberland and Westmorland (hitherto in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle) became part.        

There was much unemployment in the city and the recession was not yet over when Fr Harker became the new parish priest. He sowed the seeds for a new school and eventually a parish in Currock and began a tradition of an outdoor procession on Corpus Christi when two thousand actually walked in the procession with even more watching reverently. He inaugurated the custom of celebrating Mass at Silloth for summer holidaymakers, and supplied a chaplain for the workers who built the reservoir at Haweswater, Mass being celebrated for them in Mardale. The Catholic Evidence Guild was formed. It is worth noting that no less then four members of the Guild had sons who eventually were ordained for the priesthood. Fr Harker was appointed to Egremont in 1933 and Fr James Fleming took over at Warwick Square. He was here for nine years and the Second World War broke out. His efforts at providing spiritual support for the many servicemen in the area and for the schooling of numerous evacuees from Newcastle took up much of his time.

In 1943 Mgr Richard Laurence Smith became the Rector of Our Lady & St Joseph’s. A meticulous keeper of records means that we have a very full account of his stewardship of the parish. The fiftieth anniversary of the church’s opening was observed with wide celebrations, but Mgr Smith notes in his diary the sad news of more men from the parish being killed in the War, including one of his curates Fr James Kenny a chaplain to the Sixth Airborne Division who, after recovering from wounds sustained on D-Day, was killed in action at Arnhem on Palm Sunday 1945.  

Mgr Smith was often invited to speak on the BBC and was a musician of some skill. He was closely involved with education in the city, refurbished the church, was delighted when Carlisle had its first Catholic Mayor (Dr Gerald Sheehan), and welcomed the Apostolic Delegate to the city in 1949. His time as parish priest was interrupted for 18 months when he was asked to serve from 1946 on the British Control Council in Germany and worked for the reorganisation of education and relief for the many thousands of refugees left stranded from all countries of Europe after the grim destruction cause by war.

The new parish of St Augustine’s was formed at this time and Our Lady’s church was consecrated in 1952, the debt having being paid off. The chapel at Alston was also established in 1953, and to this day St Wulstan’s chapel-of-ease is a thriving part of the mother parish – Cardinal Basil Hume celebrating Mass there on the chapel’s fortieth anniversary. Mgr Smith retired in 1967, but continued to reside in the Rectory until his death in 1977.