Batley Cemetery is full of the history of St Mary of the Angels RC Church, with thousands of parishioners buried there, largely in the burial plots in the cemetery’s unconsecrated section.
However there is one area of Batley cemetery where the graves are predominantly made up of the burial plots of priests and nuns who served the parish, close to a century and a half of parish history.
These are the photographs I took on the 5 October 2023. Other than Canon William Daly, all of the priests and nuns are before my memory. Some of the mid-20th century ones though might still be remembered by earlier generations of parishioners
The photograph below is the headstone inscription of Fr. Patrick Lynch, who served in the parish between 1860 to 1867, and was instrumental in setting in motion the plans to build the church. This included fund-raising, part of which was writing an appeal to the people of Ireland for donations. The letter dated 7 December 1863, published in The Irishman newspaper, can be read here.
He was also involved in convoluted negotiations for obtaining land on which to build the church.
It appears the stress broke his health. The booklet commemorating the 150th anniversary of the parish quotes a letter apparently from the Bishop of Leeds which read:
…I am told, and think it, that it would almost kill Mr (Father) Lynch to shut him out from Batley. It would certainly injure his health and, if nothing else, retard his recovery. No, he shall go away and still call Batley his own. That is due to him.
The implication is he was away from the parish to recuperate, but the Bishop had no intention of replacing him, and that Fr. Lynch would return once he had recovered. As can be seen from the headstone he died on 12 December 1869, six months after the foundation stone was laid for the church, and a mere 12 months before it’s official opening.
The next inscription, on a 2nd face of the same headstone, is for Fr. Thomas Bruno Rigby. He was the priest who oversaw the building of St Mary’s church, and who met an untimely end only 16 months after the Church officially opened. More about the history of the building of the church, and Fr. Rigby can be read here.
The 3rd face of the headstone has a dedication to three nuns: Sr. Madeline De Ange (Emma Thompson) who died in 1890, age 33;1 Sr. St. Agnes (Catherine O’Grady), who died in 1926 at the convent in Birstall, where she had been since August, after previously being at Batley convent for about 24 years. She had been in orders for about 47 years, entering the Order of the Sisters of Charity of St Paul when only 18 years old. In common with other nuns at St Mary’s convent, she taught at the school; and Sr. Bonaventure (Catherine Butler) who died in 1937, age 59.2
The Sisters of St Paul arrived in the parish following the establishment of the Convent, and were very much associated with the school. In my schooldays I recall Sr. Euphrasia, Sr. Francis, and Sr. Antoinette.
The 4th face of the headstone has inscriptions for two more St Mary’s priests. The first is for Dean John Joseph Lea. He served in the parish between 1899 and 1923, initially as a curate but becoming parish priest in October 1902. He celebrated his silver jubilee in the priesthood in 1916, during the First World War. Write-ups of the parish celebrations for that milestone are here and here.
He died in the afternoon Friday, 27 April 1923, collapsing whilst trimming the presbytery garden with a pair of shears. He died before the doctor arrived. His funeral on the following Monday was described as one of the largest seen in Batley for years. So great were the numbers, the church could not accommodate all those who turned up for his Requiem Mass.
The other inscription is for Fr. Peter McBride’s. He came to Batley as a curate, serving with Dean Lea, in 1905. He was the priest in charge when the Church was consecrated in 1929. For more details about that service, click here.
Serving at St Mary’s for 46 years, he died whilst at the home of his brother in Maghera, Co. Derry on 25 April 1951. His body was brought back to Batley, the parish he made his home, for burial. Long after his death, his walking stick was legendary – he used it to rap loudly on the doors and windows of parishioners who were in danger of sleeping in and missing Sunday mass. Mum used to mention this in relation to her parents, who lived in the parish in the mid-1920s.
The next grave is that of Fr. Laurence Gallon, Fr. McBride’s successor as parish priest. Born in Bradford, and ordained in 1922, he was the instigator of the annual torchlight procession at St Mary’s. The first one was held on 20 October 1951, shortly after his arrival as parish priest, and although the scale is smaller nowadays, it continues still as an event on the evening of the first Monday in October, attracting people from across the Leeds Diocese.
For that first procession, in the shadow of the Second World War, Fr. Gallon asked those walking to dedicate their prayers to world peace – something sadly still relevant today.
The headstone standing next to Fr. Gallon’s is one remembering three more Sisters of St. Paul nuns. The first name is that of Sr. Theresa Gertrude (Rose Mary Ryder), who taught at St Mary’s school until 1945. Born in Limerick, she came to Batley in 1902. She died in the convent on 6 May 1962, at the age of 82 years, a short time after attending early morning mass.3
The next name is that of Sr. Anthony Josephine (Johanna Carey), 78, who died on 3 December 1968 in Birstall.4
The third nun is Sr. St. Chad (Margaret Noonan). She came to Batley in 1938 as headmistress at the school, and remained so until her retirement in 1952. I think I can remember my dad talking about Sister St. Chad.
The final headstone is that of Canon William Daly, the priest I remember from my early years in the parish. Hailing from Firies, Co. Kerry, he was ordained in 1936. He was parish priest at St Mary’s from 1966 until his retirement in 1989. Afterwards he resided at at St. Gabriel’s Home for Retired Diocesan Priests, Horsforth until his death on 21 March 1994, but he returned ‘home’ to Batley to be buried. His funeral, conducted by the Rt. Rev. David Konstant, Bishop of Leeds, was attended by over 100 priests, as well as a huge congregation of parishioners.
The priest buried alongside Canon Daly is Fr. Elders, an old-boy of St Mary’s of the Angels.
I will end this post with final photograph is of the row of headstones.
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Footnotes:
1. Age taken from the Batley Cemetery Burial Register.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. There is some confusion in the burial register, with St Joseph’s given as her residence, but the parish listed as Birstall not Batley Carr.
Sources:
- Batley Cemetery Burial Registers.
- Batley News , 5 May 1923 and 24 December 1926.
- Other PastToPresentGenealogy One-Place Study posts.
- St Mary of the Angels 1853 – 2003, 2003.
- WALSH, Denis. A Hundred Years 1870 – 1970: St Mary of the Angels, Batley, 1970.
Past To Present Genealogy 