Supporting Our Parish

The best way to support our Parish is through prayer. Please keep all the Parish in your prayers, especially our sick and those in need.   At the Offertory of the Mass we support the work of the Parish by our giving in the collection. The offerings support the work of the Church and provide for our priests. If you are a tax payer your gift can earn an extra 25p in each pound if you complete a Gift Aid form.

Our Churches

A short history of Our Lady Star of the Sea Catholic Church, Brixham

The small Catholic community of Brixham was originally served by the Marist priests from Paignton.  Revd Fr Roland Walker, OBE, was the first resident priest.  He was a retired colonel in the Indian Army who had taken a late vocation.  Mass was said every Sunday in a small chapel adjacent to the old chapel in Cavern Road.  During the summer the holiday makers swelled the community so that doors were left open and those unable to get inside had to stand outside.  Revd Fr Victor Robertson arrived after the demise of Fr Walker and he was very keen to build a new suitable church.  Eddy James, a solicitor clerk, was asked to find land that could be used for building.  This was done without too much publicity as Catholics were at the time not welcome in this part of Devon.  The site in New Road was found and the church was built on what was the croquet lawn in front of the the house which is now the Presbytery.  The author Francis Brett Young once lived there, the Civic Society blue plaque can be seen on the outer wall of the building.  During the planning process of the church Brixham Town Council made one stipulation which was that we had to build a car park and the only place possible was on the roof - at that time this design was unique in Europe!   To raise money for the project, Bingo was organised in the Scala Hall twice a week in the winter and 3 times in the summer.  Our dear ladies made up refreshments to serve to our public. Harry Pontin even donated a holiday for two every year and this we sold via raffle tickets all through the season.  We were allowed to go by special permission into each of the 3 Pontins camps to raise funds in the ballrooms.  It was one of the first, if not the first, in the diocese to have semi-circular benches focussing on a raised altar all within a rectangular building.  The church cost £46,000 to build, a small figure today but a colossal sum for a parish of under 100 souls back in the mid 60s.  We are so grateful to those who worked so long and so hard for so many years to allow us to worship here today.

We are fortunate in having a spacial stained glass window in the former Blessed Sacrament Chapel, an area now used as the Baptistry.  It was donated by the Cathcart family and designed by Moira Forsyth, ARCA, who was one of England's most notable stained glass window artists.  Other examples of her work can be seen at Eton College, St Paul's Cathedral, Guildford Cathedral, Bradford Cathedral, and the Middle Temple in London.   The window on the right hand side of the church is made from solid blocks of coloured glass designed and produced for us by the monks of Buckfast Abbey in their characteristic style.  

Another striking window can be seen in the present Confessional.  It depicts the Baptism of Christ, reflecting the original use of the room as the Baptistry.  

A short history of St John the Baptist Catholic Church in Dartmouth written c 1965

In the year 1200AD William FitzStephen granted to the Canons of Torre Abbey the church of Tunistall (Townstal), Dartmouth, on condition that they provided a vicar in perpetuity.  This they did until the suppression of the monasteries in 1538 by Henry VIII.  At this time the last Abbot, Simon Rede, secured for himself the living and remained at Dartmouth until his death in 1555.  After this we do not find any other Catholic vicar appointed to Dartmouth, but about a century later under the Cary family, who had bought Tor Abbey and had become reconciled to the Church, a partial revival was made because they maintained a priest who, as well as being their private chaplain, attended to the spiritual welfare of a very wide district, including Brixham and Dartmouth.

The first priest of more recent times to take up residence in Dartmouth was Fr Charles Timings who arrived in 1782 and opened a chapel somewhere in Lower Street for the fishermen engaged in the Newfoundland Fisheries who regularly frequented the port, as well as for the faithful dispersed throughout the South Hams.  By 1814 Newfoundland trade had completely forsaken the town and the funds for the incumbent at Dartmouth were transferred to the newly established mission at Weymouth and prospects for a mission at Dartmouth ceased.

In 1858 the Bishop of Plymouth received a letter for Lord Henry Kerr, until recently protestant Rector of Dittisham (near Dartmouth) who had become a Catholic, saying he was desirous of promoting the Faith among those to whom he had ministered as a protestant clergyman, promising the sum of £1,000 to establish a mission in the old town of Dartmouth.  A room was rented in Aitken’s Lane in which Holy Mass was offered from time to time on weekdays by the Canon or his assistant.  Several priests, over short periods, continued the mission until 1866 when the Revd John Baptiste Laborie Rey was appointed resident priest. Under him Dartmouth was established on a solid basis.  He purchased the house, previously rented by Canon Windyer, with adjacent land – in all about one acre of ground.  This property was situated in Higher Street and Above Town.  The house being tenanted and occupied, two large rooms were retained and converted into a chapel whilst a cottage at the upper extremity of the steep ground became the priest’s residence.  The building of the church, consisted of a single nave and the presbytery, designed by J A Hanson of London, Architect, was started in 1869 by Richard Babbage, a local contractor.  The presbytery was occupied in March 1869 and in June of the same year the church, dedicated to St John the Baptist, was opened by the Bishop of Plymouth, the former chapel room becoming the school of the mission.

In 1873 the Marquis of Bute visited Dartmouth and promised to contribute to the expense of adding a sanctuary to the nave.  This work, accomplished by a local builder, Richard Nunne, was completed in 1876.

These buildings, so necessary for the work of the mission, were due to the incessant labours of Abbe Rey and great indeed was the sorrow of the parishioners when he was found dead in his bed on 22 November 1884.  A marble slab erected to this memory is on the wall of the sanctuary of the church he built.

His successor, Fr William Downing, inherited the zeal of the predecessor for the beauty of the church and began arrangements for the erection of an altar in harmony with the style of the building.  With the generous help of parishioners and friends he was enabled to complete this task by 1887 when the altar, a fine work in Seaton stone with white marble statues, was consecrated to the Sacred Heart.  Five arches of French rough-antique marble form the front of the table.  The super-altars of Belgian marble encase a tabernacle of alabaster; the whole flanked by heavy columns of Malplaquet marble.  The reredos bears four statues nearly four feet high, representing St Patrick and St Winifrid on the Gospel side and St William of York and St Cecely on the Epistle side.  Around the Blessed Sacrament throne are six adoring angels worked in Seaton stone.

Fr Downing retired in 1891 and was succeeded by Fr John Charles McCarthy from Camborne, who donated the Lady Altar as a personal gift.  He died in 1911 and was followed by Fr Leahy (1912-1917) and then Fr Daniels (1917-1923).  Fr J J Fanning took over in 1923 and devotedly directed the mission for 13 years.  It was in Fr Fanning’s time that King Alfonso of Spain visited his son, Prince Don Juan, who was a cadet at the Royal Naval College.  The King attended Mass at the church and afterwards was entertained to dinner in the presbytery by Fr Fanning and other prominent members of the congregation.

1936 saw the arrival of Revd Frank Hodge, who continued to serve the mission until 1951.  Dartmouth being a naval port, the events of the Second World War brought a tremendous increase in the activities of the priest which took a very heavy toll on his health.  Fr Hodge obtained permission to join the Cistercian order and still remains a very happy monk at Mount St Bernard Abbey, Coalville.

From 1951 to 1964 Fr A O Keefe continued the work of the mission, and one of great activity it was.  He was responsible for the complete re-flooring of the church.  In 1964 he was transferred to Teignmouth and in turn was followed by Revd Canon Michael Kennedy.