These are the history pieces which appeared in the Batley St Mary of the Angels and Birstall St Patrick’s bulletin during May 2024. As the parishes are jointly administered and a single bulletin produced, the history pieces are not solely focused on St Mary of the Angels.
4/5 May 2024
On 1 May 1932 Agnes Kilgallon was the May Queen in St Mary’s annual May Queen service. Dressed in a white dress and veil, her train was bone by John Hannan, Peter Doyle, Thomas Senior and James Greenwood. She was attended by Mary Harkin, Joan Colleran, Margaret Monahan and Mary Risby. The ex-Queen, Miss Teresa Judge, also wore white. Her train was carried by James Lynch and Francis Collins. Her attendants were Mary Rayner, Kathleen Monahan and Maureen Sharpe. Mary Lynch carried the crown, with which the May Queen crowned the Statue of Our Lady.
11/12 May 2024
On 12 May 1928 Batley St Mary’s Catholic Young Men’s Club beat Batley Carr Working Men’s Club 5-4 in the final of the Batley Workshop’s Competition, organised by the Batley Rugby League Supporters’ Club. The final, held at Mount Pleasant, was played before a crowd of 1,500. Frank Buckley captained the team, which included Thomas McCarthy, John Carr, Frank Harkin, John McDonald, George Delaney, Michael Howley, Patrick Kilgallon, John William Levitt, David Buckley, Michael Callaghan, Thomas Carney and James Phillips. John Carr scored the winning try, converted by James Phillips.
18/19 May 2024
On 5 April 1916 at St Mary’s parish priest, Rev. Father John Joseph Lea, celebrated his silver jubilee as a priest, almost seventeen years of which he had spent in the parish. On 16 May 1916 his parishioners marked the occasion with gifts including an illuminated address presented by Andrew Cox, and £120 raised by the parishioners over the previous five months, which John Foley – father of Batley’s posthumous Distinguished Conduct Medal hero Thomas Foley – handed over.
25/26 May 2024
St Patrick’s annual May Queen procession took place on Sunday 25 May 1930. Although the event was scaled down from previous years because of the expense in a time of hardship, it was still impressive. The May Queen was 13-year-old Monica Adams. She wore a bead-trimmed dress of ivory satin in early Victorian style, a hand embroidered veil, white silk gloves, and silver brocade shoes. Her three-yard-long gold-lined train of white silk was carried by page boys John Clarke and Joseph Peel. They were accompanied by the previous year’s May Queen, Eileen Gallagher. The cushion bearer was Mary Higgins, who carried the crown which Monica placed on the statue of Our Lady. Maids of Honour were Mary Stainthorpe, Lily Roberts, Annie Meehan, Mary Roberts, Eileen Gallaher, Nora Gavaghan, Kitty Maguire, Majorie Brennan, Theresa Lyons and Eileen Halloran.
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