Draft History of St Timothy’s

ST TIMOTHY’S - NEW PARISH AND CHURCH

The histories of St Timothy’s and St Paul’s are very much linked together so it is advised to read the History of St Paul’s first to realise why and how St Timothy’s came into being.

The Deysbrook Estate (named after the large house “Deysbrook”, which occupied the site where Tesco Deysbrook now stands, was in the pipeline during the early 1950’s. By the end of 1953, Deysbrook had approximately 700 homes planned for completion. Also, new housing estates were built in Croxteth. Once again the Catholic church was faced with the need for further church buildings as the expansion of West Derby as a residential area continued at a pace after World War II.

By autumn of 1954 some of the houses, flats and maisonettes in Deysbrook were already occupied. It had become obvious to the Church authorities that a good proportion of the occupants would be Catholics and so the idea that there must be a church to serve the Deysbrook Estate was born.

The site of the present church almost chose itself: on the east side of Rockwell Road where no houses had been planned and, after negotiations, the site was obtained for £1,795 from its two owners. The major part belonged to the Earl of Sefton and a smaller strip belonged to the City of Liverpool. On September 29, 1955, the Acts of Conveyance were signed between the Trustees of the Archdiocese and the two previous owners.

After that, an architect, Mr F G Montgomery, was quickly appointed and the builders, Messrs C.J Doyle and Son Ltd, were nominated to do the work. On the feast of St Timothy, January 24, 1956, Dean O'Donoghue ceremonially turned the first sod on the building site of St Timothy's church. The local paper recorded this historic event.

After the ceremony, one of St Paul's oldest members, Miss Elizabeth O'Connor, spontaneously took the glittering new spade from Dean O'Donoghue and made a collection which realised £4.

The naming of the parish and church is quite appropriate as Timothy was a convert and constant companion of Paul but no doubt in giving the Parish this title the Archbishop was indulging his quiet sense of humour, as Timothy was also the Christian name of Dean O’Donoghue.

The new appointment did mean that the clergy at St Paul’s Church in Spring Grove could now concentrate solely on the ministry of the parishioners living within the new parish boundary for St Paul’s parish.

St Timothy’s church had in the meantime been licensed for marriages and the first wedding took place on September 17 1959, which meant that the new church was acting as a parish church, even though it was not officially established as such until December 16 1959 when St. Timothy’s was officially established as a Parish Church.

The year of 1960 was to be a year of many firsts including the first Easter Vigil and, on the Sunday after the feast of Corpus Christi, a group of some forty children made their first Holy Communion. In addition, the parish club opened its doors for the first time on June 15 1960. In July, the parish conference of the St Vincent de Paul Society was formally set up, a most necessary instrument of community charity in any parish. Later, the first of many Summer Fairs was held in the field alongside the church.

In October, as the Priest's House was ready, Father Fitzsimons was joined by Father John D'Arcy who was to remain until November 1962 when Father John Callaghan succeeded him. At the beginning of 1962 a foundation of the Union of Catholic Mothers was set up in the parish at the request of a number of parishioners who had already been members in their former parishes. In fact by 1962 the pattern of events for each year was set and in July the parish had its first Episcopal visitation from Archbishop Heenan.

By then, the Catholic Church was on the brink of a tremendous process of renewal, when Pope John XXIII convened the Second Vatican Council. Pope John had been elected in October 1958 and, in October 1962, in Rome, all the bishops of the Catholic Church were gathered round Pope John in the Council. They were to concern themselves with human unity and peace, with Christian unity and renewal of the Church. He asked for prayers for those 'who are separated but carry in their heart the sign of the Cross or search in their solitude for the sense of the words of God in Sacred Scripture.'

In 1960, the introduction of the Covenant or Planned Giving Scheme for offertory collections began, this was an important factor in helping the parish to meet its financial commitments.

The first twenty five years of St Timothy's parish coincided with the progress of the Vatican council and its aftermath. In the first years of the parish, good relations were established with St Mary's, in West Derby village, and with the vicar and people of St Luke's, their neighbours in Princess Drive.  Encouraged by the spirit of the Council, Father Fitzsimons and the vicar of St Luke's, the Rev Eric Clarkson, decided to have a joint service of prayer during the Church Unity Octave in January 1964.

Given the ecumenical developments over the past years, it now seems slightly ridiculous that they did not dare to hold this service in one of their churches, but compromised by using St Luke's Parish Hall. Nevertheless, it earned a front page heading (Historic Local Step to Christian Unity) in the local paper, together with a long report on the front page, and the national recognition by photograph on the front page of the Church of England Newspaper. These bonds have remained and have grown even stronger between the clergy of the local churches and between the laity through numerous joint services and the work of the West Derby Ecumenical Committee.

In the summer of 1965, Father John Callaghan was appointed parish priest of St Anne's, Freshfield, and was succeeded by Father John Rawsthorne who was later called to join the Catholic Missionary Society, and he was succeeded by Father Peter Kelly.

In the mid-sixties, the area known then as Cantril Farm and now known as Stockbridge Village, began to be developed on the edge of St Timothy's parish. Its care was confided to the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and the first parish priest to
be appointed was Father Richard Scriven. For a time, until he could obtain a house on the estate, he lived at St Timothy's presbytery and thus St Timothy’s can claim some small share in bringing the parish of St Albert's into being.

There are still very few churches in Liverpool, and indeed in the Liverpool archdiocese, which have been invited to provide the Sunday morning service for television, but this distinction came the way of St Timothy's as long ago as 1971. On February 14 that year, Granada moved in to televise the 11 0'clock Mass for the whole national ITV network. Messages of appreciation and thanks were received from all over the country.

A few years after the death of Lord Sefton, plans were in hand for building on the Croxteth estate, five hundred acres were given to the city and the remaining five hundred set aside for building houses etc. The result was that, at the beginning of the 1980’s the parish had grown by 150 dwellings on the Barratt Estate and considerably more on the Parkland Estate. The result of this influx of, mainly, younger people was reflected in the increasing number of baptisms which rose steadily.

Notes

1. It was decided by the Parish Centenary History Group not to proceed any further with this work but to leave the history from 1960 onwards to a future generation who can be more detached.

2. We are all grateful to Canon Sean Kirwin who set up the Parish Centenary History  Group in 2015 and encouraged them, while he was Parish Priest.

3. The webmaster is very grateful to the Parish Centenary History Group  for allowing their work to be edited for this page.  It is hoped by the group that they will publish a document with more details in the near future than what is on this page.

4. Gratitude to people who have allowed us to use photographs